Sandstorms and Falling Leaves
by Saravi Boo
Summary: The 2nd story in my Secrets and Lies series. Sequel to Desert Flower, so read that first or you'll be lost. NarutoxGaara not yaoi. Intrigued? Read and Review Please! Also featuring ShikamaruxTemari and hints of ShinoxHinata. May be more pairings later.
1. Chapter One: Arrival

**Author's Note: Hello, everyone! Sorry for the wait! I had a lot of trouble getting this story going. I'd like to say a special thank you to Frustratedfruitloop for helping me sort out my plot. I'd also like to thank everyone who reviewed, favorited, or put on alert Desert Flower. Knowing people were actually reading my weirdness really helped me to keep writing. Okay enough sentimental dribble…. I noticed that I did not mention Gai and his team in the previous story. That was a severe oversight on my part and I apologize for it. I had intended to mention that they had gone back to Konoha and left Kakashi and his team to recover a bit before making the trip (because Kakashi was so exhausted from using his sharingan) but somehow that got lost in the editing. I intend to go back and do a bit of revising on Desert Flower once this story is out of my head.**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or Gaara or any other characters from Naruto. I do not own Konoha or any other recognizable setting. I make no profit off of them. I did make up Shinta and Sena, but I don't make any money off them either. If anyone wants to borrow them for their own fics, please give me credit for creating them and let me know what story to look for them in. Thanks. On with the fic...**

**Sandstorms and Falling Leaves**

**Chapter One: Arrival**

Gaara was relieved when her small band of ninjas arrived at the gates of Konoha. The trip had taken nearly double the time it normally would have, because they had to accommodate the camels through the desert. Then they traded the camels out for an ox-drawn cart at the edge of the desert, which was just as slow. They had kept their cloaks on and tried to draw as little attention as possible in the hopes of throwing off any pursuit the announcement of her departure may have generated.

The redhead was pleased that her shadow clone ploy seemed to have worked. She had released the jutsu midway through the day after they left Suna. She had been suddenly filled with the knowledge that the announcement had gone smoothly and the villagers were taking it fairly well. She was a little surprised by that, Naruto hadn't mentioned that she would receive the memories from her clone.

They had not encountered any trouble on the journey. 'Though there are downsides to that.' She mused, casting a glance at her siblings. Temari and Kankuro had been at each other's throats for days, arguing to relieve the tension and boredom. It was a behavior Gaara was well acquainted with and she knew they didn't mean ninety percent of what they said to each other when they were fighting, but it still grated on her nerves that the only emotion her family reliable portrayed towards each other was anger. 'Not that I'm any better.'

Having to worry that someone might kill her was a novel experience for the ex-jinchuriki. People had tried all her life but before the Akatsuki, no one had ever come close to succeeding. Now the worry that she might not be strong enough to defend herself, and worse that someone she loved might be hurt defending her, ate at her constantly. The stress, combined with her insomnia, made her irritable and withdrawn. Even Naruto couldn't get more than a few words out of her after the first couple days had passed. Thankfully the blonde boy didn't seem to take it personally and instead spent hours chatting with Matsuri and her jonin sensei, Sena.

Shinta had struck up a conversation with Sakura about medical ninjutsu on their third day of traveling, because he had thought about becoming a medical ninja and he was curious about the technique she had used to remove the poison from Kankuro's body. That lead to other topics and the two soon discovered they had quite a bit in common. The Suna chunin still eyed Naruto with distrust but he seemed resigned to dealing with the orange clad ninja's presence because the Kazekage obviously liked having him around.

Kakashi acted as scout while Kankuro drove the cart. Gaara was kept to the center of the group, just behind the cart, the safest spot in case of an attack. The little redhead was unused to needing protection and the restriction bothered her more than she let on.

"We're home!" Naruto shouted excitedly, "Ichiraku here I come! Ramen, ramen, ramen! Yeah!" The blonde seemed oblivious to the stares most of the Suna ninjas were giving him as he bounded towards the gate. He looked back with a huge grin while still rushing towards the gate.

Crash!

The leaf genin slammed into something and went sprawling.

"What the..." Naruto jumped back to his feet and glared at the thing that was rude enough to knock him down.

The thing didn't bother to glare back, looking bored and exasperated at the same time. His hands were shoved in his pockets and you got the impression that he could have avoided letting Naruto bump into him, but it would have been too much trouble.

"Hey, Crybaby!" Temari shoved her way to the front of the group, grinning at the leaf chunin. "So did you make jonin yet?"

Shikamaru yawned, "Don't be stupid, Woman. You were only gone a couple weeks. I'll get to it."

"Lazy."

"Bossy."

"Ahem." Kakashi cleared his throat, amused at their antics but eager to get home and relax a little, away from all these teenage hormones. Plus he wanted to read his new book for the fifteenth time. All the nuances were really starting to sink in the last time he read it.

Both teenagers blushed but Shikamaru recovered quickly.

"I have orders to escort the Kazekage, her party, and team Kakashi to the Hokage's office." He announced dryly.

He had actually been lazing around near the gate for days, waiting for them to show up. He had a strong suspicion Tsunade gave him the mission early, to give him a chance to take a break from planning the upcoming chunin exams. He had been immersed in those plans for months: choosing proctors, organizing security, providing lodging and escorts for the ninja teams taking the exam, and working with the troublesome Suna ambassador. Chunin exams made him nervous, the memory of the sound invasion always moved to the forefront of his thoughts when it came time for Konoha to host the event. He wasn't about to allow a fiasco like that on his watch, so laziness had taken a back seat to necessity. He'd grumbled and complained, but he did a thorough job and he knew Tsunade appreciate his hard work, even if she never mentioned it.

Gaara moved smoothly to the front of the group, noting that the Nara boy had said 'her party', obviously he had been told about her by Tsunade. He didn't seem to care, but then apathy was a look Shikamaru pulled off very well according to conversations she had overheard from her sister.

She nodded tersely and the spiky haired chunin turned towards the gates. Naruto fell in beside her as the group moved to follow the Nara heir. He was visibly disappointed to not be going straight to Ichiraku but he rallied quickly.

The blonde boy turned to her with a big grin, "Wanna have some ramen after this meeting is over? My treat."

Gaara hesitated. She wasn't even sure if she liked ramen, having never tried it, but she did like spending time with Naruto. After a few seconds she nodded at him.

"Hey, Naruto." Sakura chimed in brightly. "Was that offer for everyone?" She grinned evilly as Naruto nervously pulled out his froggy wallet and eyed it's contents. He glanced at Gaara, who just shrugged to show that she didn't care if the pink haired girl came along. It wasn't like going to eat ramen was a date or anything, "I guess you can come, Sakura-chan." The leaf genin said slowly.

Sakura smiled but inner Sakura heaved a great big sigh of relief. 'What the hell was Naruto thinking? Asking Gaara out in front of Shikamaru! That guy is way too perceptive. Good thing I was here to cover for them.'

If Shikamaru noticed the exchange, he showed no sign of interest as he led them up the exterior stairs of the Hokage's building. He knocked once on the office door and waited patiently for a muffled "Enter" before he pushed it open and stepped aside to let the Kazekage and everybody else enter before him. He was about to close the door and slip away, when Tsunade caught sight of him.

"Nara, stay." she ordered.

The lazy young man sighed and slumped against the wall near the door.

Tsunade stood and nodded politely to Gaara. "Welcome Kazekage-san."

"Just Gaara." the little redhead corrected with a nod in return, "I'm not the Kazekage right now."

Tsunade frowned, "Stupid chauvinist attitudes can't take away who you are. You earned the title of Kazekage and you deserve to keep it," the fiery older woman said firmly, "but if it makes you more comfortable, Gaara-san it is, and you can call me Tsunade." She finished with a grin.

Gaara nodded.

"Now, down to business," Tsunade sat back down at her desk and leaned forward, "I have arranged three apartments for your group. I assumed you would want to stay in pairs rather than alone."

Gaara nodded again.

"Right, Shikamaru will show you to them when we are done here. The rent is reasonable and the landlord has even offered a substantial discount if he can advertise that you stay there. Before you go, however, I would like to make sure there are no new developments since you sent me that letter. We have the Chunin exams coming up in two weeks and we can't afford any surprises. I realize you have your own security, but I must ask that you keep us informed if you find any threats within or around the village."

Gaara shrugged, "We've noted no threats."

"Good." Tsunade smiled and leaned back in her chair. "Shikamaru."

The lazy chunin raised an eyebrow at her in answer.

"Kindly escort the Kazekage and her party to their living quarters and help them settle in."

The sand ninjas looked to Gaara for instructions.

"Go. I'll join you later." She waved them away before turning back to Tsunade. "Naruto has offered to introduce me to ramen, so I'll wait for him." She hesitated, "Should I wait outside?"

Tsunade shrugged, "Makes no difference. This is Naruto's business mostly. If he doesn't mind, I don't care."

The blonde boy perked up at her words, "Me? What about me?" He asked excitedly.

Tsunade cast a pointed glance at Gaara and her siblings, who were wavering in the doorway. The redhead waved them away imperiously and they hurried to follow the leaf chunin.

"Oh, she can stay. Now, what is this about me?" The orange clad boy was bouncing in place with eagerness.

Tsunade looked at the blonde boy seriously, "Naruto, you are the only member of you class who has not yet reached the rank of chunin."

The young man slouched in depression, she had hit on a sore subject.

"As I said earlier, the next chunin exam is being held here two weeks from now." She studied him thoughtfully. "You are going to attempt the exam again."

Naruto's head shot up and he grinned, "Really? Great! I'll definitely pass it this time."

Tsunade nodded, "You had better, because this is the last mission you will ever receive as a genin."

Sakura gasped at the ultimatum and Gaara's eyes widened slightly. Kakashi showed no reaction except to glance at Naruto thoughtfully. The blonde genin clenched his fists and looked down at his feet for a minute before he drew in a deep breath.

Tsunade preempted whatever he was going to say, "After all, the future Hokage can't stay a genin forever."

Naruto visibly relaxed and a small grin crept onto his face, "That's right. I won't let you down, Hokage-sama."

"I'm looking for a team for you to take the exam with since Sakura has already passed." She purposefully did not mention the other member of their three man squad.

"Would an international squad be allowed?" Gaara asked thoughtfully.

The four leaf ninjas looked at her in confusion.

"Matsuri has yet to take the chunin exam. I was planning to suggest she take the next one but she is ready." The redhead explained.

Tsunade pondered the idea, "It has never been done before, but I don't know of any rules against it. They'll still need a third."

Gaara shook her head, "She is the only genin with me."

"Naruto, do you think you can work with the sand genin?" The Hokage asked seriously.

"Sure, no problem."

"Very well." Tsunade nodded. "I suggest you begin training with Matsuri of Sunagakure as soon as possible and I'll find you a third before the exam."

Naruto nodded.

"I will inform Matsuri tonight." Gaara told them.

"Excellent, that saves me a little bit of trouble. Naruto, Sakura, you may go. Gaara-san, if you don't mind going with them. I will have Shikamaru find you later to show you to the apartments. Kakashi, stay."

The three young people left the office and shut the door behind them.

Naruto's exuberance from the gate reasserted itself, "Ramen! Let's go, Gaara, Sakura-chan." He grabbed both girls by the hands and dragged them off down the hall, past the startled faces of Tsunade's assistant, Shizune, and her pet pig, Tonton.

* * *

Meanwhile, Neiji and Tenten were waiting for their unibrowed teammate to arrive at their usual meeting place. They had returned from the rescue mission to Suna over a week ago and had spent the downtime training while they prepared to serve as security for the upcoming exams. The two less "youthful" members of Team Gai had arrived early to present a united front against whatever hair brained training regimen Lee was sure to come up with.

Neiji spotted the Suna ninjas first, as a jonin he had been told about the Kazekage's impending stay so he wasn't surprised to see the puppet master driving a cart, and the fan-wielding blonde walking beside Shikamaru. He didn't see the redheaded Kazekage among the other three sand ninjas walking behind the cart, which was a bit disappointing because he had been briefed about her recent gender revelation and wanted to note any changes.

"I guess the Kazekage must have finally arrived." He gestured idly to the group as he said it.

Tenten was just turning to see what he was talking about when a green blur landed between the two teammates.

"My eternal rival is here?!" Lee struck a pose as he landed. "I must go and greet him immediately! We will have a youthful challenge!" The green unitard wearing ninja sped off towards the Suna ninjas, screeching to a halt in front of Shikamaru and Temari, who were leading the small group.

"Where is my eternal rival, the esteemed Kazekage Gaara-san?!" He demanded cheerfully.

Shikamaru frowned but decided to answer, in the hope that it would get the troublesome ninja to go away, "With Naruto." He drawled tiredly.

By the time Neiji and Tenten had recovered from their green clad friend's abrupt proclamation, the younger green beast of Konoha had already moved on from the startled sand ninjas. The Hyuuga boy and the brown haired girl hurried after him without delay.

"Hurry," Neiji encouraged, activating his byakugan to make following the green blur easier, "I didn't get the chance to tell him that Gaara is actually a female and he's sure to make a scene when he finds her."

"Wait a minute," Tenten gaped at him but did not stop running, "Gaara's a girl? Since when?"

"Since always apparently. It is a long story and one I have not been told the details of, just try to act normal when we find her."

Tenten nodded gravely, mulling the new information over and trying to reconcile it with the deadly, slightly psychotic guy who nearly killed Lee during their first chunin exam, or the quiet, serious young man who had become Kazekage at only fourteen years old. Neither image looked quite right so she pushed both away and resolved to stay open minded.

Neiji spotted Naruto, Sakura, and Gaara with his byakugan and cut sideways hoping to head them off and warn them of Lee's approach. The exuberant young man probably wasn't even considering the fact that the redhead was still recovering from her recent ordeal and he might not give anyone time to point that out before issuing his challenge. Neiji scowled and increased his speed, 'That idiot is going to cause an international incident if I don't stop him.'

Tenten didn't question the sudden course change, she trusted Neiji implicitly. He was her best friend and, she had long ago admitted to herself, she had a huge crush on him. The thought made her blush and she quickly refocused on the task at hand, mentally berating herself for being foolish. 'As if he'd ever want to date a plain faced, second rate kunoichi like me. Ino is prettier, Sakura is stronger, and there are any number of other girls throwing themselves at him now that Sasuke is gone. He's a genius, girl, don't get any ideas.' By the time her mental tirade was finished she could see the three distinctive hair colors of the group they were aiming for. She focused on speeding towards the bobbing red, yellow, and pink heads and pushed the other depressing thoughts away.

Too late. Lee came around a nearby corner and spotted his target at that moment.

* * *

Gaara spotted Lee just half a second before he spotted her. She watched his eyes light up with excitement as he charged forward.

"Esteemed Kazekage Gaara-san! My Eternal Youthful Rival!" He shouted as he aimed a kick at her stomach.

She just barely had time to get her arms in place to block, and the impact reverberated through her whole body. 'That is definitely going to leave bruises.' She mused as she ducked his follow up swing at her head. Naruto and Sakura stepped back, not sure whether she would want them to intervene in the fight.

"Yes! I have come to challenge you, My Esteemed Eternal Rival! I will prove the power of youth can overcome any opponent!"

Gaara was just fraction of a second too slow to block a blow to her chest as she processed what the odd ninja was saying. As the open handed hit connected, she was knocked back a few feet and she would have skidded further if two sets of insanely strong hands hadn't caught her by her arms. Lee jumped back and prepared to launch another attack.

Just then, Neiji and Tenten dropped from a nearby rooftop to land between the two combatants. Neiji landed closer to Gaara, quickly apologizing to the redhead for Lee's behavior.

Tenten landed facing the green clad boy, "What is the matter with you?! Don't you remember rescuing Gaara-sama just a couple weeks ago?! Do you think a victory would mean anything with her still recovering? Where is your honor, Lee?" She knew exactly which buttons to push and the excitable leaf ninja hung his head in shame, dramatic tear streams running down his face as he dropped to his knees in front of the stunned redhead, who was still being supported by Naruto and Sakura as she tried to catch her breath.

"Forgive me," The young man pleaded tearfully, "In my youthful joy at hearing of your visit, I failed to consider your weakened condition. It was dishonorable to attack you when you weren't at your peak strength."

Gaara coughed as she tried to speak, and had to try again. "Don't worry about it." She said slowly, wanting the weird guy to stop crying at her feet. "It was good training."

Lee shot to his feet with a sparkly grin and a thumbs up, "Ah, your youthful attitude makes me proud to have you as my rival!" He paused and cocked his head to one side as he studied her. "By the way, is something different about your voice? I didn't think I hit you that hard...."

Gaara was saved from having to use her recently abused lungs to answer as Neiji stepped up and whispered in Lee's ear.

"WHAT?! My Eternal Rival is a woman?!" Lee looked at her again and Gaara stared back, refusing to give in to the self-conscious urge to avert her eyes. "Is that true?" Lee asked quietly.

She nodded.

He seemed to think it over for a minute before a toothy grin once again lit his face. "I will surpass you yet! Don't think you can get out of meeting my challenge just because you are a woman. You are still My Eternal Rival and I must beat you so I can prove my ninja way!"

Gaara blinked at him in confusion, but her pride wouldn't let her refuse a direct challenge. She shrugged off the supporting hands of her companions and stepped towards the green clad young man calmly.

"I accept." She said simply, "Once I have recovered my strength, you can help me test it." A small dangerous smirk played across her face but Lee did not catch the warning in it.

He turned around to expound upon the joy he was feeling at her acceptance of his challenge and did not notice her quick hand signs. He heard movement behind him and looked back at her just in time to see her place her palms flat on the earth. Suddenly, the ground beneath his feet was no longer solid and he sank into soft sand up to his neck. Gaara stood and brushed off her cloak, satisfied that her practice during the long, mostly sleepless nights of their trip had paid off. Her control was much better than when she had thoughtlessly tried the same jutsu on Kankuro a week ago. Lee wouldn't sink any further and she didn't feel dizzy at all, which meant her chakra levels were returning to normal.

She stepped around the strangely happy looking head sticking out of the sand and continued in the direction they had been going before Lee's sudden arrival. She nodded to Neiji and Tenten as she passed them, grateful for their intervention. Her ribs hurt and her arms ached but she was fairly certain nothing was broken. Neither she nor Lee had been seriously injured and no buildings had been damaged. Neiji nodded back and went to help Lee extricate himself from the ground.

Tenten grinned brightly at her and bowed quickly, before she too went to see if she could help her teammate out of his predicament. She had been a bit nervous when she saw Gaara performing a jutsu, remembering Lee's broken form after the chunin exam, but the green clad boy looked merely startled rather than hurt and the redhead seemed decidedly amused by the whole situation.

Gaara paused as Naruto caught up with her. Sakura looked back at Lee with a conflicted expression on her face before she shook her head and went over to the bowl cut boy.

"What are we going to do with you?" She muttered before looking back at Gaara and Naruto. "I'm going to help dig Lee out. You guys go on ahead, but you'll owe me ramen later, Naruto."

Naruto nodded and took Gaara's hand as they continued towards Ichiraku. Lee's excited prattle and Tenten and Sakura's angry voices followed them for a few minutes as they walked.

When he was sure they were out of earshot Naruto glanced sideways at the sand ninja, "Why didn't you just reverse the jutsu the way you did with Kankuro?"

A smirk played across her pixie-like features and she shrugged, "Because I didn't want him following us."

Naruto grinned, "Yeah, Lee can be pretty persistent company. He'd probably want to help you train or something."

Gaara nodded.

Naruto spotted Ichiraku up ahead and the incident was pushed aside for a more important matter, namely ramen.

He sat down on an empty stool and Gaara removed her cloak before she took the one beside him, looking around curiously. Sunagakure didn't have any ramen stalls, and no Suna restaurant would be open to the air like this one, because the frequent sandstorms and fierce heat made such a layout impractical.

The owner, Teuchi, and his daughter, Ayame, smiled warmly at Naruto and greeted the jinchuriki warmly before the old man turned his attention to his other patron. He blinked at the petite redhead, obviously recognizing her as the Kazekage, but not knowing what to make of her obviously feminine figure. Gaara suddenly regretted wearing the snug black t-shirt and shorts under her cloak, as they left her feeling rather exposed now that she had taken it off.

"So, Naruto," Teuchi drawled, his smile still firmly in place. "Who's your friend?"

Naruto smiled cheerfully, "This is Gaara. She's come to train in the village for a while and I told her the first thing she needed to do was try your ramen because Ichiraku's is the best ramen in the world." He announced seriously.

Teuchi looked to Gaara for more information but the redhead was silent and merely nodded a greeting at him. Giving up on figuring out the weirdness of ninjas for the time being, he nodded back and switched his attention back to his best customer. "Okay then, what can I get for you and the young lady?"

Naruto rattled off his order and looked at Gaara. She shrugged to show she had no idea what to order and he rattled off something else to the old man, who immediately set about preparing their food.

"You've never tried ramen at all? Really?" Naruto gave her a disbelieving look.

Gaara shook her head and spoke quietly, not comfortable talking in front of the old man and his daughter who were still staring at her when they thought she wasn't looking. "I told you, we don't serve hot soups in Sunagakure and I've never spent much time in other villages, at least not socially." She frowned as she thought about the fact that many of the villages she had visited when she was younger weren't even there anymore because of her.

"But you stayed here for the chunin exam..." The blonde stopped as Ayame dropped a bowl in shock.

Gaara scowled at the orange clad ninja, as the man and his daughter scrambled to clean up the spilled soup and broken pottery. "I ate whatever Kankuro handed me." She gritted out. "I wasn't here for the food at the time."

Naruto looked blank for a moment before comprehension dawned on his face, "Oh yeah. We're such good friends now, I just don't often think about...uh...before." He said lamely.

Gaara just shook her head, 'Only Naruto would condense my murderous, psychotic past into 'before' and think nothing of it. It is a wonder he has survived as a ninja for this long, he's so quick to want to trust people.'

"I'm terribly sorry." Gaara glanced up at Ayame in surprise, she thought the girl was afraid of her. "I just didn't know the Kazekage was in town and I couldn't believe you would be here in our restaurant. When I finally realized it really was you...I'm sorry but it was a shock to me. Please forgive my clumsiness, Kazekage-sama."

Gaara nodded, not bothering to correct the girl about the title and too shocked to otherwise reply.

Just then Teuchi set their ramen in front of them with a flourish. "Thank you for your patience. I wanted to make sure it was extra special for the Kazekage, especially since I heard you say you have never tried it before." He smiled at Gaara and she nodded her thanks as she took a pair of chopsticks from the container Naruto held out for her.

The blonde then began to demolish his own ramen with gusto. Teuchi and Ayame smiled fondly at him for a moment before turning to watch Gaara try her own food. The audience made her a little uncomfortable but it wasn't like she was unused to being stared at and the looks weren't always so pleasant.

Cautiously, she brought the steaming hot noodles to her mouth and slurped them the way Naruto was doing, only slower because she liked being able to breathe. The old man and his daughter were watching her expectantly so she swallowed her first bite and nodded at them.

"It is just as good as Naruto said it would be." She said slowly. She couldn't say it was her favorite food but it was pretty good, and there was no reason to alienate the proprietor of Naruto's favorite restaurant.

"Well, you're welcome to come back anytime. Naruto is one of my best customers and any friend of his is a friend of mine." Teuchi smiled brightly and he and his daughter got to work on more ramen for Naruto, who had already decimated his first bowl.

"See, I told you, you would like it." Naruto grinned at her.

They continued to eat in silence. Naruto was on his third bowl when Gaara finished her first. She ordered another with extra fishcakes, since fish was an expensive delicacy in Suna.

She was halfway through that when the curtain was pushed back and two ninja's she vaguely recognized as being the Nara boy's teammates came in, arguing over the choice of restaurant.

"But we always have barbeque." The tubby young man was protesting.

"Exactly!" The blonde girl sounded thoroughly exasperated. "We always eat there and I tired of having the same thing week after week. From now on we have to go somewhere else at least once a month or else! Got it?!"

The fa-husky young man hung his head. "Okay, I got it. At least it's Ichiraku and not that salad place you like. It would cost a fortune to fill me up there."

"It costs a fortune to feed you anywhere, Choji." The girl muttered sourly.

"Hey, Choji! Ino!" Naruto waved at the bickering pair as they took the remaining two seats.

"Hey, Naruto." Choji said cheerfully, he then noticed the redhead on the other side of the blonde boy. He studied her intently for a moment, "Gaara?" He asked hesitantly. "Is that Gaara with you, Naruto?"

The blonde nodded, strings of ramen hanging from his mouth as he continued to make up for his time away from his perfect food.

"You...uh...you look different, Gaara-san." Ino ventured curiously.

"Not really." Gaara said, resigning herself to answering this sort of question for a while. "You've just never seen me without my sand armor. No one had until recently. Not even me."

The redhead could practically see the blonde girl's train of thought as she sorted out that statement. Ino's eyes lit up with excitement and Gaara suddenly regretted speaking to the girl at all.

"So, you've always been a girl? Wow! I never would have guessed. Why the disguise?"

"It wasn't my idea, it came with the one tail." Gaara explained reluctantly, suddenly remembering that Ino liked getting into other people's heads.

"Ooo, I see. Now that the demon is gone, no more disguise. That's gotta be weird, right? All of a sudden finding out you are a woman. I can't even imagine how difficult it must be for you to adjust." The blonde girl's pupiless blue eyes were wide a she considered it.

Gaara went back to finishing her ramen, not acknowledging that question at all. Ino ordered a diet ramen. Choji was already well on his way to catching up to Naruto.

Thankfully Naruto declared himself done after his fifth bowl and Gaara was done after her second.

As the blonde boy was paying the tab, Ino leaned over to Gaara and whispered conspiratorially, "If you have any questions or need any help with anything just let me know, okay. I'm a good listener." The girl's strange blue eyes sparkled as she smiled at Gaara.

Gaara kept her face blank and didn't respond to the offer, retreating outside to wait for Naruto. When the orange clad ninja joined her a few minutes later, he seemed oddly amused and Gaara raised an eyebrow at him in question as they started to walk away from the ramen stall.

"Well, I think you just took care of explaining your situation to everyone in town."

Gaara's expression became even more puzzled.

"Ino is the biggest gossip in the entire village. In a couple of days everyone will know everything you just told her and more if she can weasel any information out of anyone else."

Gaara frowned but her feelings on the matter were mixed, 'I don't like people gossiping about me but in this case it is true, so I can't really say anything. At least it will save me from having to repeat myself to everyone who recognizes me.' she shrugged, "What's done is done. I don't care who she tells as long as it is the truth."

Naruto nodded, "She's usually pretty good about that as long as you aren't Sakura."

Gaara didn't have to ask the blonde about the rivalry between Ino and Sakura. She had seen their fight at the chunin exam and the two girls obviously had issues that went deeper than Sasuke.

Just then Shikamaru and Temari came around the corner ahead of them. The eldest sand sibling hurried over to the pair, the lazy leaf ninja trailing behind her reluctantly.

"Hey, the apartments are mostly set up. They were furnished already so we don't need to buy much. I hope you don't mind rooming with me. We put the boys in one apartment and Sena and Matsuri in the other which left just me and you for the third."

"That's fine." Gaara assured her apathetically.

"Since Temari knows the way back, you don't need me anymore." Shikamaru announced, edging away.

Temari looked ready to protest his departure but she apparently couldn't come up with a valid excuse and so she simply scowled at his retreating back until he turned the corner, heading out of town and back towards his family estate. Once he was out of sight, the older girl shook her head and turned to her youngest sibling with a small smile.

"Are you ready to go check out our new home, Gaara?"

The redhead nodded thoughtfully. 'Home. I guess I've never really had one of those before.' She mused to herself as they walked, 'I thought I finally had a place in Suna, but when I lost my usefulness my home went with it. No, that isn't true. Temari and Kankuro are my home. They stay with me no matter what. Isn't that what a home is? Wherever the people who love you are...' She glanced at the young man at her side, marveling as she realized he felt like home to her too. She shoved the thought into the back of her mind, which was thankfully a much less crowded place now, and resolved not to get ahead of herself. 'Naruto likes me right now and he wants to help me, but this probably won't last forever. Why would anyone stay with someone as screwed up as me when they have so many better choices around? I just hope we can remain friends...'

Naruto must have spotted the troubled look in her eyes, because he reached over and squeezed her hand, continuing to hold it as they made their way through town. Temari grinned at them but said nothing. Her natural inclination was to tease the young couple, but Gaara had a habit of taking her teasing seriously so she decided to keep her big mouth shut for once and let her little sister enjoy her first boyfriend, 'At least for a little while, then I'm not making any promises.' The eldest sand sibling thought with a grin.

When they arrived at the apartment building, Gaara invited Naruto in and asked Temari to get Matsuri and Sena to join them.

"You really think I'm ready, Gaara-sama?" Matsuri asked nervously when the redhead told the girl she had registered her for the chunin exam.

Gaara nodded.

"Of course you're ready." Sena assured the girl. "You've been ready for months."

Matsuri frowned, "But I thought the exam was only open to three person squads. Are more genins coming from Sunagakure?"

"You will be on Naruto's squad." Gaara gestured to the blonde boy. "The third has not been chosen yet, but the Hokage assured me she would find someone."

"Naruto? Is that even allowed? He's from a different village...." The younger girl stammered.

"It will be allowed and I expect you to train hard for the next two weeks. Learn to work well with Naruto." Gaara ordered, leaving no room for argument.

"Yes, Gaara-sensei." Matsuri bowed before she stood and looked at the single leaf ninja in the room. "When do we start, Naruto-san?"

* * *

Dawn the next day found six figures standing in team seven's old training area. Shinta had stayed home to guard the apartments, since they had not finished installing sufficient traps to satisfy the paranoid sand ninjas. The training they had planned would involve one team tracking and sparring with the other group in one on one battles, since the opponents were all jonin or higher. Matsuri and Naruto were to be the pursuing team, to practice working together. The rest of the Suna ninjas would serve as their opponents. Gaara, Kankuro, Temari and Sena got a ten minute head start and then the other two ninjas went after them. Matsuri was an accomplished tracker so they found a trail right away.

* * *

"Naruto, stop!" The brown haired girl called out and the leaf ninja obediently jerk to a complete halt. It was a good thing too, because just a foot in front of him was a nearly invisible trip wire attached to a paper bomb on the branch above him. It was a training bomb so it wouldn't have killed him, but it would have been unpleasant.

"Thanks, Matsuri."

"No problem."

* * *

They had to travel slower after that, wary of more traps, but by midday they had rounded up Temari and Kankuro, both of whom had put up a good fight. Naruto overpowered the puppetmaster with his shadow clones while Matsuri occupied the newly repaired Crow. Both ninjas knew the battle might have been a lot more difficult if Kankuro's other puppets hadn't been out of commission. Later, Naruto's clones served as decoys for Temari's attacks while Matsuri waited for a chance to tangle the wind user in her johyo and render her fan useless. Thankfully they managed to trip her up before she could summon her flying weasel.

* * *

Sena was an expert tracker, which made finding her exceedingly difficult, but Matsuri used a sensory jutsu that allowed her to follow the jonin woman's scent. They caught up to the dark haired jonin in a small clearing surrounded by booby traps. Naruto used his shadow clones to set off all the traps at once in the hopes of disguising their approach and throwing her off guard. It almost worked but she performed a substitution and almost took out Matsuri with a sweep kick before the girl could dodge. Naruto was just able to force Sena back with a hastily thrown kunai, giving Matsuri time to escape.

Twenty minutes and many more unsuccessful attacks later, Naruto gave in and summoned Gamakichi who had grown considerably in the last two years. The man sized toad lashed out at the jonin woman with his tongue and managed to pick her up by her feet, allowing Naruto and Matsuri to force her to surrender. All three jonins had moved on to other pursuits after being 'defeated'. That left only Gaara and the two genins in the training area.

* * *

Naruto and Matsuri finally tracked down Gaara late in the day, after taking a break to recover from the earlier sparring with the three jonins. The redhead was waiting patiently in a field, and she had obviously been busy because she was surrounded by a pile of sand when she hadn't brought any with her. When Naruto had asked her about her gourd that morning, she had muttered something about it being broken and needing to make another soon.

The young woman wasted no time in attacking them, she sent her sand to grab them but it wasn't up to her old speed and they were able to dodge. Naruto made a few dozen shadow clones to further occupy her with figuring out which was the real ninja. Matsuri was fairly busy just dodging her old sensei's attacks but she occasionally managed to throw a kunai or attempt to entangle the redhead with her johyo. As the battle dragged on, all three ninjas were visibly tiring. Gaara had not used her jutsus for any prolonged period of time since the loss of Shukaku, and the other two had already fought three battles that day.

However tired he might be, Naruto was enjoying the battle. Gaara was a cunning opponent, making up for her current weakness with calm forethought. She really forced him to strategize and try to outthink her.

By the time the sun had begun to set, Gaara was thoroughly frustrated with herself. Her sand wasn't responding as quickly as it used to, she had to consciously direct it to shield her from projectiles and other attacks, a Kunai had grazed her arm and one of Naruto's clones had managed to get through her defenses to land a kick on her side. 'I know I can do better than this.' she thought angrily. Suddenly, her slight scowl shifted into a small smirk.

"Naruto," She called out.

The blonde boy and the younger girl stopped and looked at her curiously.

"Dodge this." She ordered, before starting a series of hand signs.

Naruto didn't recognize the signs but Matsuri did, "Oh shit! We need to get off the ground now!"

The blonde boy didn't question her, he just started his own hand signs, biting his thumb and summoning Gamatatsu. "I'll get you some snacks if you take us and jump really high." He promised the portly young toad, who was just as big as his brother.

"Okay." Always ready to work for food, the toad allowed Naruto to jump onto his back with Matsuri in tow.

By now they could see a wall of sand starting rise in front of Gaara.

The tsunami of sand swept towards them. Gamatatsu leapt high into the air as the wave passed just a few feet below the toad's webbed feet. They touched down briefly on the shifting sands before the portly toad's powerful legs launched the trio skyward again.

By the time they landed the second time the sand had settled, turning several hundred yards of meadow into smooth desert.

"Wow!" Naruto blinked around in awe as he hopped down off the toad's back. "I didn't know you still had this kind of power, Gaara. Way to go!"

Matsuri hopped down beside the bonde, looking around in concern. "Naruto, do you see Gaara-sama anywhere?" She asked hesitantly.

The orange clad boy's grin slipped and rushed over to the last place he had seen the red head.

After a few frantic moments of searching, a flash of red against the beige landscape caught his eye.

"Gaara?" He called, half hoping that this was just a trick to catch them off guard. He rushed over to the crumpled figure, half covered with a heavy dusting of sand. 'Please be alright, please be alright...' He pleaded silently, trying to banish the image of Gaara's still, cold corpse lying on the grass with Sakura shaking her head. 'Not happening again.' He insisted to his subconscious, firmly pushing the image away.

Carefully, he rolled the young woman over and brushed the sand from her face. He breathed a sigh of relief as her breath passed across his hand. He checked for signs of injury and found none other than a couple of minor cuts from their sparring match.

Matsuri hovered nervously on Gaara's other side. Naruto forced himself to remain calm for her sake.

"Come on." He said firmly, "Help me get her on my back and we'll take her to Tsunade."

The younger genin nodded and helped Naruto situate the limp redhead on his back in a piggy back position.

"I'm probably over reacting." The blonde said, not sure whether he was trying to convince himself or the sand genin. "It's most likely just chakra exhaustion, but I'll feel better if the old lady has a look at her."

Matsuri nodded and they took off for the village at top speed.

* * *

**To be continued....**

**Author's Note: Okay, sorry for the cliffhanger. I was going to put the whole two weeks in one chapter but it would have been fifty pages long in word. I broke it so you all wouldn't have to wait as long for the story to start. The next bit is just waiting to be typed so it won't be long in coming. Let me know what you think, please! I tried to keep Gaara more in character because I was told she was talking too much. *laughs* The final paper in my class is due next week so I probably won't get the chance to type up chapter two until after next Tuesday. I'll get it posted as soon as possible. Thanks for reading.**


	2. Chapter Two: Discovery Part One

**Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto, it's setting, characters, or plots. I only claim this story and if anyone wants to put it up somewhere just ask me. I'll most likely say yes.**

**Author's Note: I'm so sorry for the LONG wait! School and life in general swamped me and fanfiction had to take a backseat. I feel terrible for leaving you all hanging for so long. I decided to break this story up into slightly smaller chapters so that I can hopefully get them out in a more timely fashion. I'm going to shoot for one a month at the very least. It should go much faster at first because I'm just typing up what I already have written. I hope I can make up for the long wait. Thank you all for sticking with me. Please read and review!**

**Sandstorms and Falling Leaves**

**Chapter Two: Discovery Part One**

A rapid trip over the rooftops later, the two genins arrived at the Hokage's office. Shizune took one look at Naruto's worried face and his unconscious cargo, and ushered them into her office next to Tsunade's larger one. She had Naruto lay Gaara down on the room's worn couch and quickly performed a basic diagnostic jutsu. Her brow furrowed thoughtfully as she finished and stood up.

"Wait here. I'll go help Tusnade-sama wrap up her meeting. Stay quiet and out of sight." She instructed firmly, before hurrying back out the door.

Naruto sank onto the floor in front of the couch. 'It can't be anything serious or Shizune wouldn't have left, but....if it's nothing, then why didn't she just say so and send us away?'

Matsuri positioned herself between the couch and the door, falling into her official role as Gaara's guard.

The redhead was still unconscious when Tsunade entered the room twenty minutes later. Naruto scrambled to get out of the blonde woman's way.

"She did a really big jutsu and passed out." Naruto informed her in an unusually subdued tone.

Tsunade nodded and performed a chakra scanning jutsu, "Naruto, would you and...Matsuri-san?" The girl nodded at the Hokage's correct guess at her identity, "Would you please step outside?"

Naruto nodded and pulled Matsuri with him to the door. The younger genin balked and the blonde boy smiled at her reassuringly.

"Don't worry, Tsunade-baachan is the best med-nin in the world. Gaara will be fine with her."

Matsuri reluctantly allowed the Leaf genin to drag her from the room and shut the door.

* * *

Tsunade was just finishing a second type of diagnostic jutsu when her patient shot upright with a strangled yell. The med-nin hastily leaned away from the wild eyed young woman.

Gaara froze for a moment as she struggled to focus on her surroundings, the painful snatches of memory and dream were shoved hurriedly into the back of her mind. She forced herself to breathe evenly and her face slipped into an expressionless mask as she recognized the Hokage watching her patiently.

"You're in Shizune's office, next to mine." Tsunade informed her calmly. "You passed out and Naruto carried you here."

Gaara nodded and forced her tense muscles to relax.

"Have you been thoroughly examined by a medical ninja since you were rescued?" Tsunade asked curiously.

"No." The redhead looked away from the older woman's sharp eyes. She had avoided it at all cost in Suna. She couldn't have anyone there finding out she was a girl.

"May I?"

Aqua eyes darted back to the blonde woman's face. After a few moments Gaara shrugged and looked away again, still embarrassed that the elder ninja had witnessed her panic earlier.

"Lie down and be still." Tsunade ordered, all business.

The redhead obeyed silently, eying the Hokage's chakra charged hands warily.

"Have you been sleeping?"

"Some." Gaara hedged.

"Nightmares?" The blonde woman prodded.

The younger woman clenched her jaw and refused to acknowledge the question.

"Hn." Tsunade shook her head as she finished thoroughly examining the redhead's chakra system.

Gaara looked at her curiously, having never been successfully examined with a medical jutsu before. The sand armor had always prevented the scans from reaching her.

"Three things." Tsunade announced bluntly, "One, whatever jutsu you used did not wipe out your chakra reserves. You have plenty of chakra, you just can't access it."

The redhead raised an eyebrow, that didn't make any sense. 'Why wouldn't I be able to use all my chakra.

Tsunade continued, "That is the second thing. It seems like the one-tail made some very interesting modifications to your chakra system. I've never seen anything like it. You seem to have twice as many chakra points as you should have and the chakra flow is divided between them. It's almost like the one-tail built a completely separate chakra system to enable your body to handle the massive amounts of chakra it needed for it's jutsus. I would guess that Shukaku was acting as a bridge between the two chakra systems, helping you to move the chakra when you needed it. Without the beast you are only pulling from one system, that's why you ran out of chakra."

Gaara sat up with a puzzled frown. "So, I'm only accessing half my chakra?" She asked for clarification.

"Probably less than half, though it is hard to judge with one system so depleted. The other system is much stronger." Tsunade struggled to find the right words to explain the girl's situation. "It's...it's a bit like someone who has had a stroke. Except instead of needing to relearn how to use part of your body, you've got to relearn how to access the rest of your chakra."

"But some stroke victims never regain full mobility." The redhead pointed out sourly.

"That's true." The older woman's response was not reassuring.

"I see."

"Hmm...actually, perhaps if you were to allow someone who could see your chakra systems to help you. The retraining might go more smoothly.

Gaara raised an elegant eyebrow. She knew that medical jutsus let the user sense a person's chakra network, but the only ones who could actually see it..."A Hyuuga?"

Tsunade maintained her thoughtful expression. "Yes. If you are interested, I recommend asking Hinata. She's around your age and she has also been trained as a medical ninja. I don't know for certain that she can help, but she would be most likely to be willing to try."

Gaara nodded once, she would consider the idea. "You said three things." She remembered suddenly.

The buxom blonde grew very serious. "I did. You need to get more rest. Your muscles are strained, your pupil response is sluggish, and you're as pale as a gh...as paper." Tsunade rephrased carefully, remembering that the girl in front of her was very recently dead. "You don't have Shukaku to compensate for your lack of sleep. Driving yourself to exhaustion is only going to hurt your chances of recovering."

The young Kazekage's face went blank and steely as the older woman spoke.

Tsunade sighed. "If you are having trouble with nightmares or memories, that would be perfectly normal in your situation."

Gaara remained stonily silent. 'Nothing about my situation is normal.' She thought ruefully.

"Fine, you don't have to talk to me." Tsunade reached out and laid a hand on the girl's shoulder, feeling the thin frame tense at the contact. "But please confide in someone." The young looking blonde released her hold on the frozen redhead, stood and brushed off her knees, despite the floor being perfectly clean. She then held up her hand putting up fingers as she repeated her advice. "Get some sleep, talk to someone, and see if Hinata has any free time to help you figure out that dual chakra system of yours. That is my professional advice as a medic."

The young woman, nodded and stood to leave.

"Gaara-san."

The redhead paused with her hand on the door.

"Here's some advice as one human being to another." The blonde said gently. "Don't bottle things up so much. There is no demon waiting for you to lose control now. Let some feelings out or you'll explode."

The young woman stood still for a moment, but didn't reply. Instead she simply pushed open the door and left the medical ninja behind as her protege and her...Naruto swarmed her with inquiries about her health.

Shizune entered the small office after seeing the group of teenagers on their way.

Tsunade scowled and shook her head. "I think if Orochimaru hadn't beaten me to it, I could've killed the fourth Kazekage for what he did to that child."

* * *

It took Gaara almost an hour to convince Naruto that she was fine and get him to stop looking at her like he expected her to fall over again at any moment. Matsuri was easier to appease and Gaara ordered the girl to say nothing of the incident to the others and then sent her home.

Once the Sand genin was gone, the redhead felt more relaxed. Matsuri's hero-worship made her self-conscious at times.

"Naruto," She started thoughtfully, as they stood on a bridge over looking the small waterway that cut through the village, "you know the Hyuuga girl, ne?"

The leaf genin looked at her curiously. "Hinata? Yeah, why?"

"Tsunade-san thought she could help me with my training." The young woman explained evasively. She hadn't told Naruto about Tsunade's discovery of her bipolar chakra networks, she had merely admitted that she had exhausted her available chakra.

"Oh." Naruto nodded as if that made perfect sense. "Hinata's really nice. I'm sure she'll be happy to help." He grinned.

"Hn. I'll ask her tomorrow." The redhead said, more to herself than to the leaf ninja.

The sun had long set, so Gaara decided to make her way home. Naruto walked her as far as the front of the building. The blonde blushed madly as he quickly kissed her cheek, before heading to his own home to have some cup ramen before bed.

Gaara made her way up to her own apartment and nodded a greeting to her sister. She ate the supper Temari had saved for her without really tasting it. "I'm tired." She told the fan-wielder truthfully as she stood up from the table. 'Even the words sound strange coming from me.' She had been tired for her entire life. It didn't mean she would be able to sleep. "Goodnight, Oneesan."

"Night, Sis." Temari said absently as she cleared the table and washed the few dishes.

* * *

Gaara shot upright in bed with her knuckle shoved in her mouth to stifle the scream that was still trying to rip it's way out of her throat. She tasted blood and the coppery substance, along with the pain, helped her to get control of herself. She removed the wounded digit from her mouth and eyed it critically in the darkened room. It wasn't too bad, she decided. The bleeding would soon stop without bandaging it.

She stood wearily and threw her long red coat on over her pajamas. She didn't bother with shoes as she headed for the door.

"Gaara? Where are you going?" Temari blinked sleepily at her from the bathroom door.

'Kuso!' The redhead gritted her teeth. "Out." She forced her voice to have it's normal flat tone. "Just getting some air. Go back to bed." She hastily escaped the apartment before her elder sister could respond.

For a moment, Temari considered following the younger girl. 'Nah, she can take care of herself.' The sleepy blonde decided. After all, Gaara had always wandered around at night. It was only the next morning that Temari remembered that Gaara's reason for not sleeping was gone.

* * *

Gaara spent the rest of the night on the roof of the apartment complex, watching the waning moon pass overhead. Shortly after sunrise, she slipped back into the apartment and got dressed for the day.

Her sister wasn't up yet, so the redhead made toast and scrambled eggs for breakfast. Temari drifted into the kitchen just as Gaara was putting it on the table.

The older girl gave her little sister an odd look and opened her mouth to say something, but she seemed to decide against it, instead taking her seat at the table with only a mumbled, "Good morning."

Gaara nodded and took her own seat.

"Itadakimasu." Temari said with a strained smile.

The redhead focused on eating her own food as quickly as possible. When she finished, she dropped her dishes in the sink. "I'll be back later." She announced as she headed towards the door.

"Where are you going?"

"Training." The young Kazekage opened the apartment door.

"Gaara." Temari's hesitant call made the redhead turn back to face her sister with a carefully blank expression. "If...if you need anything." The blonde girl blurted nervously. She sucked at this emotional crap. "Help with training...or just someone to talk to...I'm here, okay?"

Gaara's cold expression softened and she acknowledged the sincere offer with a small nod before she continued on her way.

**

* * *

To Be Continued...**

**Author's Note: YAY!! It is moving again! I hope that whets your appetite for the upcoming chapters. I have lots of plans and I am determined to work in time for writing. All work and no play make Boo a have a nervous breakdown. Been there, done that. No thank you. Please read and review so I'll know I didn't lose all my readers due to the wait. ^_^' Alright, next chapter: Some of your other favorite young ninja's get in on the action! With appearances by Hinata, Shikamaru and several others! Stay tuned to find out what will happen. ^_^  
**


	3. Chapter Three: Discovery Part Two

**Author's note: I'm very sorry for the long wait and I hope you have stuck with me. My father-in-law was in the hospital for about five months, finally passing on in early October. We were very close. Then, we had to deal with getting through the first holidays without him along with trying to get on with our lives and school and having to move because our boss got evicted and we were her live in nannies. It's been a rough year and I'm afraid it left me with little drive to work on my fanfiction and less time to watch anime for inspiration. However, things are going better now and I have not given up on this story! I've put too much work into it to abandon it. I also really appreciate all the reviews and encouragement to continue. This isn't betaed so please point out any glaring errors I may have missed in my proofreading (because it's three AM and my brain is mush). **

**Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or anything related to it except for some dvds and a Shikamaru patch on one of my purses. I sewed it on myself. ^_^ I'm poor and suing me isn't worth the time and energy it would take. I make no money. Period. I seriously need a job. **

**Without further ado, I present chapter three. **

**Sandstorms and Falling Leaves**

**Chapter 3: Discovery Part Two**

The Hyuuga compound was not difficult to find. Gaara asked directions from a shopkeeper but she could have spotted the imposing wall surrounding the place from any rooftop in town.

She pulled the rope next to the gate and listened to it ring a bell just inside the wall, before crossing her arms and stepping back to wait.

She wasn't kept waiting long before a young man with distinctive Hyuuga eyes opened the gate. He bowed hastily when he realized who she was.

"Kazekage-sama, how can I help you?" He asked politely.

"Hinata Hyuuga, is she in?"

"Of course." The man gestured and a second guard detached himself from behind the wall, flitting off into the complex to retrieve the young leaf chunin.

Gaara remained perfectly still as she waited. Her lack of fidgeting seemed to be disconcerting to the guard, which she found strangely amusing. 'One would think he'd be more concerned if I moved.' She thought to herself curiously.

Five minutes later, the second guard returned with Hinata trailing after him.

"K-kazekage-sama," She stammered nervously as she bowed. "You w-wanted to see m-me?"

"I have something to discuss with you, privately." Gaara said calmly, her eyes flicking to the waiting guards.

"Oh...um...okay." The blue haired ninja nodded slowly before stepping out into the dusty street. "I know a p-place we can t-talk."

The large gate swung silently closed behind them as Gaara folowed the Hyuuga girl away. They came to a stop about ten minutes later at a small field just outside the village walls.

"No one but my team uses this training area." Hinata announced quietly.

Gaara nodded, trying to decide how best to approach the subject she needed to discuss.

"So...um...w-what did you need to t-talk to m-me about?"

The redhead frowned as she realized she was going to have to be perfectly honest if Hinata was going to be able to try and help her at all.

"Tsunade-san said you would be the best choice to help me with my training." She said bluntly.

"M-me?" Hinata squeaked as pale, pupiless eyes widened in confusion and shock. "Why?"

"Because you can see chakra networks." Gaara took a deep breath. "Look at me and tell me what you see."

Hinata frowned in confusion, but activated her byakugan and studied the redhead intently. She blinked, trying to clear her vision and gasped when the image didn't change.

"Gaara-sama." She breathed. "You...you've got two completely separate chakra networks. I've never seen anything like it."

She released her jutsu and looked into uncomfortable aqua colored eyes.

"You see why I came to you." The petite redhead stared at a point just to the left of Hinata's head, unable to meet her eyes. 'She has no reason to help you. You nearly destroyed her village once.' She berated herself silently.

Hinata smiled shyly, "What can I do to help?" She asked sweetly.

Gaara blinked, her self-deprecating thoughts interrupted by the question. She gave a one shouldered shrug. "Perhaps if you watch me perform some jutsus and tell me what my chakra is doing?" She suggested. "Hopefully something will present itself."

Hinata nodded and they got straight to work, spending the rest of the day with the redhead performing minor jutsus and the Hyuuga girl watching with her byakugan and making suggestions and comments.

They stopped only a couple of times: once when the blue-haired girl's teammates came by to check on her and she politely sent them away, which the young Suna ninja was grateful for. The second time they stopped was to eat a quick lunch.

By sunset they had discovered that one of the chakra networks was much weaker than the other, almost like that of a normal person rather than a ninja. That was the source of chakra that Gaara was currently using and it wasn't enough for any of her larger jutsus.

"I think..." Hinata stopped, too shy to voice her opinion.

"Go on."

"Maybe the d-demon made that second chakra system and you've never used your natural chakra pathways at all. It would explain why they're so weak." The leaf ninja finished softly, afraid she might have offended the other girl with her idea.

Gaara only nodded, it made sense. "With the loss of Shukaku I automatically began drawing from my own chakra system which isn't strong enough."

"Right." The blue haired girl smiled shyly.

"Now..." Gaara considered the problem for a minute. "How do I switch back? Or maybe find a way to connect the two networks?" She scowled, frustrated. 'Why can't anything in my life ever be simple?'

"I'm sorry." Hinata averted her eyes, upset by her failure. "I don't know."

Gaara noted the purple clad ninja's expression and smoothed the scowl from her own. "It's fine." She said with a shrug. "I didn't expect to fix it in a day. Can you meet me here tomorrow?"

"Sure." the leaf girl rewarded her efforts with a small smile.

"See you then."

* * *

Over the next several days, the Hyuuga heiress and the young Kazekage developed a tenuous friendship. At first, Gaara was terrified of scaring the girl away so she made an extra effort to be polite. Hinata responded to the kindness by opening up a little, allowing the redhead to realize there was a great deal going on inside the painfully shy girl. As the days passed, Hinata stammered less and they talked more. Gaara didn't even have to work at being nice to her, it started to come naturally. It was inevitable that the conversation would eventually turn to a certain hyperactive leaf ninja who was highly important to both of them.

They were sitting beneath a tree, taking a break after Gaara had attempted one of her more taxing jutsus, when Hinata brought the subject up.

"Um, Gaara-san." The pale lavender eyes were locked on her nervously fidgeting fingers. "You and Naruto-kun are friends, ne?"

Gaara hesitated. 'Are we more than that? He did kiss me...but we haven't been on a date since that first one in Suna...maybe he changed his mind...'

"Gaara-san?" Hinata prompted, unaware that she had asked such a difficult question.

"Hn. Yes, we're friends."

"He...um...how-how is he? I've hardly s-seen him since he got b-back." The blue haired girl blurted, blushing fiercely.

"He's training for the chunin exam." Gaara said slowly, trying to understand her new friend's odd behavior. "I haven't seen him in a couple of days but he was fine then."

"Th-that's good. I...um...everyone really missed him while he was away." Hinata's face matched Gaara's hair almost perfectly. "Has...has Naruto-kun...you seem to have talked to him more than I have...has...does he have a girlfriend?"

Gaara's eyes went wide. 'Oh. She likes him.' That explained a lot. 'No wonder he hasn't bothered with me since he's been home. She's everything a guy could want: pretty, nice, rich, never been a psychotic murderer, she sleeps, and she's a leaf. Of course he'll choose her.'

"He used to be really hung up on Sakura, but I overheard her telling Ino that he might be interested in someone else." The pale eyes seemed to cut right through Gaara's thoughts as the Hyuuga girl met her eyes nervously. "Do you know who it could be?"

The redhead's features slipped into a controlled mask, blank of all emotion. "Hinata, you should ask Naruto about that." Gaara could feel her own heart breaking but she knew it was for the best. She was already so messed up, a broken heart would make little difference. Hinata deserved better. Naruto deserved better. "I...I can't say how he feels, but..." She stood and turned away so the overly perceptive girl wouldn't catch the conflicted emotions in her eyes about what she was suggesting. "Even if he does like someone else, you should tell him how you feel. He might decide you're the better option. I...I'll see you tomorrow."

The redhead fled the clearing, feeling utterly sick about what she had just done. 'Idiot, she can have anyone she wants and you just gave her your only chance at happiness. Stupid! Of course he'll choose her over me. I couldn't be more screwed up if I worked at it.' She snarled and punched a nearby tree, sending a shockwave up it that rained leaves down all around her. 'I'm not feminine or pretty or sweet or domestic.' She snorted, 'Okay, I'm more domestic than he is but that's not saying much. I'm not even powerful anymore.' Her punches struck the tree with every point her mind dredged up. 'I can't sleep for more than an hour or two without waking up screaming. I'm from a different village. If I manage to keep my position as Kazekage, he would have to give up everything to stay with me. He wouldn't be able to realize his dream of becoming Hokage. I have absolutely nothing to offer him as a wife.'

She froze in her tracks, poised to strike the tree again. "When did I start planning to marry Naruto?" She mumbled to herself before shaking her head to clear it. "Forget it. He'll choose her and it will be better for him. No one deserves to be shackled to me. I'll only hurt him." Saying the words out loud seemed to help her convince herself and the redhead left for her apartment, too caught up in her own emotions to notice the wide eyed Hyuuga heiress in a tree not too far away.

Hinata clamped her hands over her mouth and tears rolled out of lavender eyes as she listened to the redhead talk. She had followed to find out what had upset her new friend, and now she knew.

'She's the one Sakura was talking about. Why didn't I see it before?' the leaf ninja thought, feeling stupid. 'And she's willing to give him up to make him happy.' Hinata sighed, she knew Naruto better than most people, including the young sand ninja. "He won't choose me over you. I've lost him."

Hinata sat on that branch for a long time before she resigned herself to what needed to be done.

* * *

The next morning, Hinata found Naruto at Ichiraku. She took a deep breath, feeling more calm than she had ever felt in his presence.

"Naruto-kun?"

"Oh, hey Hinata-chan." The blonde boy smiled cheerfully at her. "I hear you've been helping Gaara with her training. Is it going well?"

"Sure." Hinata's heart crumbled a bit as his question confirmed her own conclusions. He was definitely more interested in the redhead than in her. "Naruto-kun, w-would you please come with me? I need to tell you something."

"Okay sure." The orange clad boy inhaled the last of his breakfast and paid his bill before leaving the small shop and following the blue haired ninja.

Hinata led him to the small training area she and Gaara had been using. Naruto was chattering on excitedly about his own recent training but for once she wasn't really listening to him. She knew the other girl would be arriving any minute and that was exactly the way she wanted it. Hinata wanted Gaara to see Naruto's reaction to her confession first hand. The shy ninja had faith in Naruto's innate loyalty. She kept her back turned to the yellow haired boy so he wouldn't see that she had activated her byakugan. She didn't have to wait long. Less than thirty seconds had passed when she spotted the Suna ninja approaching from the direction they had come.

'Perfect.' Hinata decided that the redhead was close enough to hear them and released her jutsu before turning to face the boy she had pined for half her life. "Naruto-kun." She interrupted him gently.

"Yeah Hinata-chan?" He asked, stopping in mid sentence when she spoke.

"I love you." She blurted, feeling lightheaded and weak from finally saying the words.

"Oh..." His smile fell.

The Hyuuga heiress spotted Gaara watching quietly from a tree nearby. The redhead looked stricken.

"Hinata...I'm really sorry." Naruto shook his head sadly. "I have somebody else."

"Who?" The tears rolling from her eyes were real, despite hours of planning the night before. Some tiny part of her had still hoped she'd be wrong.

"I shouldn't say." Naruto scratched his neck. "I'm not sure she wants anyone to know. It could really hurt her position..." He trailed off sadly, unable to say more without giving Gaara's identity away.

"Please, I need to know." Hinata pleaded. "I won't tell anyone."

Gaara suddenly moved to stand beside Naruto. Disbelief and gratitude for what the leaf girl had shown her crossed her face before she covered them. "You can tell her." She said quietly.

Naruto blinked in surprise at the Suna ninja's sudden appearance, but he smile softly at her and took her hand before turning back to face Hinata.

"I see." The Hyuuga girl preempted his words, not needing anything more to make her point. "I hope you make each other happy. You both deserve it." She told them sincerely, despite the tears that continued to roll silently down her cheeks.

"Hinata..." Gaara tried but found no words to express what she wanted to say.

"I'll be okay, Gaara-san. If we can just skip training today, I'll see you tomorrow, okay?" The girl wiped her lavender eyes and fled into the trees.

"Come on, Gaara." Naruto gave the sand ninja's hand a gentle tug. "You can train with Matsuri and me for today." He was worried about Hinata but he knew that going after her would only make things worse. She needed time.

Gaara nodded and the worried couple left the clearing.

* * *

Hinata made it about a hundred yards before her tears made her unable to see where she was going and she sank to the ground, rather than risk running headfirst into a tree. She wasn't certain how long she had been sitting there sobbing when she felt someone crouch down in front of her.

She lifted her head from her hands and rubbed her eyes until she could see...and found herself staring into shiny black lenses. "Shino-kun."

"Hinata." The insect ninja slowly pulled his hands from his pockets and hesitantly held open his arms.

"Oh, Shino." Hinata practically dove into the confort he was offering, knocking him off his feet as she threw herself against his chest.

Shino embraced his sobbing teammate silently, knowing nothing he could say would help. The broken hearted girl cried herself to sleep in his arms and he just sat there for hours, watching over her.

When the shy girl woke up, mid afternoon, she found herself still snuggled against her taciturn teammate. She blushed and pulled away from him. "Sorry Shino-kun."

"Don't mention it."

She couldn't decide whether he was just being polite or if he actually didn't want her to ever mention the event again, so she erred on the side of caution and changed the subject. "H-how did you find me?"

Though it was hard to tell with so much of his face covered, she almost thought he looked embarrassed. "I had some of my insects watching the clearing...in case someone attacked you or the Kazekage." It was a perfectly reasonable, logical precaution.

"Oh." The Hyuuga girl blushed. "So you know everything that happened?"

He nodded.

"I'm an idiot, aren't I?"

Shino shook his head. "No...but you're better off without him." He held up his hand to forestall the explosion he saw swelling in her at his perceived slight to the yellow haired ninja. "He's like a lantern and you're like a moth." He said carefully.

"What?" Pupiless eyes blinked at him in confusion.

He hastened to explain. "Moths are quiet and soft. A moth is drawn to a lantern because the lantern is bright and warm but a moth can never touch that fire. The lantern cannot see the moth to return it's attention because it's too caught up in trying to make itself shine. The lantern is even so bright that, even though the moth may be beautiful and unique, all anyone looking can see is a lantern and a shadow as long as she stays close to it."

The shy girl frowned.

"But when the moth moves away from the bright light, everyone notices it's beautiful colors." The young Aburame finished quietly. "You deserve better than to be someone's shadow, Hinata."

The blue haired ninja nodded slowly. 'Leave it to Shino to compare me to a bug and make it sound so nice.' She managed a watery smile for his effort. It really was a beautiful analogy. "Thank you, Shino-kun."

He nodded and stood, offering a hand to help her up. "Of course, I can still put fleas in his bed for you if you want." He offered seriously.

"Shino!" Hinata gasped. "Don't you dare!" But she giggled a little at the thought.

Shino smiled behind his high collar at the sound. She'd be alright. 'Mission accomplished.'

* * *

When Gaara headed for the clearing the next morning she wasn't totally sure the blue haired ninja was going to show up, so she was surprised to find the young Hyuuga heiress already waiting for her.

"Good morning, Gaara-san." Hinata greeted her with a smile that looked only slightly forced.

"Hinata." The young Kazekage hesitated. "I'm sorry."

"It's okay." The leaf ninja smiled again as Shino's story drifted through her mind. "It probably wouldn't have worked out anyway. It was just a childhood crush and it's time for me to grow up." She wasn't sure who she was convincing but it was pretty good logic. "So, I was thinking maybe if we tried exhausting your regular chakra first, it might make it easier for you to access the rest of it."

Gaara nodded, acknowledging both the change of subject and the idea. 'That shouldn't be too hard.' She thought wryly. 'I'm already exhausted.'

**To be continued...**

**Another author's note: I hope you all aren't too disappointed with this chapter. I really like parts of it and can't think of anything better to do in others so there it is. Let me know what you think, please! The next chapter will shift the focus solidly back to Gaara but Hinata's crush needed to be addressed and her reaction dealt with (and Shino volunteered for that job, isn't he a sweetie?). ^_^ I hope at least some of my lovely reviewers are still reading this. I'm sorry again for the long wait. Please leave a review so I know you're still there or even if you're just joining the fun. Thank you very much for sticking with me. I'll try to get the next chapter up soon. **

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	4. Chapter Four: Breaking Down

**Author's Note: Wow this got a lot of hits in just a few days. Not many reviews, but favorites and alert notifications are good too. ^_^ To reward all of you who waited so patiently and entice those of you just joining us to stick around, I set right to work on typing up this chapter rather than doing as I had intended and alternating updates between this and another fic (a Yu Yu Hakusho story, in case anyone's interested). So please reward me for my relatively speedy update with some reviews! ^_^ **

**Oh, and just so you know:**

**"blah" = Spoken words**

**'blah' = Thoughts  
**

**Disclaimer: Gaara wants me to tell you that because I don't own Naruto, he gets to keep his boy parts. He also wants me to inform you that no one pays me to write this crazy stuff. There I said it. Now can you stop tracking sand through my living room? *glares* On with the fic.**

**Sandstorms and Falling Leaves**

**Chapter Four: Breaking Down**

Temari watched her little sister leave the apartment for the seventh night in a row. After catching the younger girl sneaking out the first time, the blonde had paid closer attention to the redhead's night time ramblings. She had even followed Gaara once and watched her for a while as the ex-jinchuriki sat on the roof and stared at the moon.

Gaara wasn't sleeping more than an hour a night and she frequently cried out before waking. Temari wanted to go to the little redhead but she didn't know what to say. She had briefly considered asking Kankuro for advice but Gaara made it clear she didn't want anyone to know about the nightmares.

'I'll give it a few more days.' The eldest sand sibling decided, using her family's long established method of dealing with problems that couldn't be eradicated through violence: Ignore it and hope it goes away on its own.

* * *

Gaara felt terrible. Hinata had taken one look at her that morning before announcing that she had something else to do and they wouldn't be able to train. The not so subtle hints the blue haired girl had dropped about the redhead's haggard appearance and the girl's concerned questions about her sleeping habits had annoyed the young Kazekage but she didn't have the energy to argue. Aggravated, instead of trying to rest she went looking for Naruto and Matsuri in the hopes that they would let her train with them for the day.

Naruto spotted her and hurried over with a bright smile. The smile transformed into a concerned expression as he got close enough to notice how pale and worn out she looked and how sluggish her movements were.

"Are you okay?" He asked, laying a hand on her forehead to check for a fever.

The redhead growled. "I'm only sick of people asking me that!" She snapped, batting his hand away and storming off, ignoring his confused and hurt expression and his plaintive entreaties for her to come back.

She wandered the village, taking to the rooftops to avoid the attention that her notoriety and her distinctive appearance inevitably brought. By the time she stumbled across the cozy covered bench on top of one of the buildings her anger fueled adrenaline had faded, leaving her feeling light headed and shaky. She sat down and pulled one knee up to her chest, resting her head on it and settling into a trancelike state she had perfected years before. It wasn't anywhere near as restful as actual sleep but it would keep her from passing out from exhaustion, at least for a while.

She jolted upright a few minutes later at the sound of voices coming up the stairs toward her perch.

"So what's happening with you and Temari recently?" Gaara recognized the speaker from her sister's descriptions. The crunching noises punctuating his words were a dead giveaway.

"She's a pain." The all too familiar voice of her sister's pseudo boyfriend floated up to her. "She says she won't have anything more to do with me until I make jonin." Shikamaru groused.

"That's rough. So are you gonna ask Tsunade-sama to promote you?" The portly boy asked knowingly.

The lazy genius hesitated, then sighed. "Yeah. After the chunin exams are over." He admitted grudgingly.

Choji laughed heartily. "Man, you've really got it bad, don't you?"

"Shut up." The Nara heir snapped halfheartedly.

Just then the two leaf ninjas reached the roof level and realized they weren't alone. Shikamaru froze, no doubt calculating what she might have heard from her position. From the face he made, he correctly figured she had heard everything. Choji just grinned and waved between handfuls of chips.

"Hey, Gaara-san." The large teen walked over and flopped heavily onto the other end of the bench. "Heard you were in town for a while. How are things going?"

She nodded her head in greeting to Choji. "Well enough." She answered vaguely.

The Nara boy leaned on the post holding up the small roof over the bench, obviously unwilling to try and squeeze in between Choji's considerable bulk and her smaller figure.

She stood to leave, not really wanting company. Unable to resist she smiled in an almost predatory way at the lazy chunin. "I'll tell my sister hello for you."

"Don't trouble yourself." the leaf ninja said, obviously trying to hide his discomfort.

"Hn. Goodbye."

* * *

Gaara skipped supper that evening, too tired to eat. She lay in bed for ages before she finally drifted off, only to wake up sweating and gasping for breath after less than an hour of rest. As had become her custom, she threw on her coat and left the apartment, but tonight she found no peace on the roof. She wandered the city in an exhausted daze, not really paying attention to where she was going.

So she was surprised to suddenly find herself outside a window, staring in at Naruto's sleeping form. Tsunade's advice that she talk to someone filtered through her foggy mind and her hand moved before she could give it a second thought. The redhead rapped sharply on the glass and waited, feeling stupid.

The blonde leaf genin startled awake and blinked blearily at her before moving to open the window.

"Gaara?" He rubbed his eyes as he scooted up in his bed to let her in. "What are you doing here? It's..." He glanced at his alarm clock. "Sheesh, it's two AM. What's wrong?" He asked in concern.

The redhead climbed across the rumpled bed and stood, nervously trying not to look at the blonde's bare chest. She crossed her arms and took a deep breath. "I need someone to talk to." She said shortly.

"Right now?" Naruto yawned. "Nevermind. It's fine. Uh...can you just go out into the living room? I'll be right out."

Gaara nodded and picked her way around scattered dirty clothes to the door. Stepping out and finding the light switch, she looked around the tiny living room with interest. She had never been in Naruto's home before, though he had pointed the place out in passing. The room was tidier than she expected and the furniture was worn but carefully repaired. She could see a tiny kitchen through an open doorway opposite the bedroom, and looking as freshly scrubbed as the room she stood in.

'I wonder if he always keeps it this way, or if he had to clean it thoroughly just to keep from suffocating on dust after being away for so long...'

Naruto emerged from his room at that moment, having pulled on a white t-shirt and removed his sleeping cap.

"Have a seat." The blonde gestured to the lumpy couch. "Want anything? I have milk, tea, or water...or ramen if you're hungry." He offered politely.

The mention of food reminded Gaara that she hadn't eaten since breakfast. 'Ramen at two AM?' She thought incredulously. That Naruto had even offered was something of a testament to the boy's love of the food. Her stomach grumbled and she nodded. "Ramen would be good." She said hesitantly.

"Alright. You wanna wait here or come in the kitchen with me?"

Gaara stood with a shrug. "I'll come with you."

The blonde led the way into the tiny kitchen and gestured for her to take a seat at the table. The redhead sat quietly and watched as Naruto bustled around, filling a kettle from the tap and putting it on to boil. His usual high spirits seemed to have returned as he pulled out two little styrofoam cups marked instant ramen.

"Pork or chicken flavor?"

The redhead shrugged. "Doesn't matter."

"Chicken it is." Naruto removed both cups from their protective wrappings and peeled the lids back just enough to pour the water in as the kettle started whistling. He pushed the paper tops back down and set one of the containers in front of Gaara before settling into the empty chair across from the silent sand nin. "You gotta wait three minutes before you can eat it."

The blonde waited expectantly for her to speak, thinking she'd start talking while they waited, but Gaara had no intention of talking before she ate. Her appetite was bad enough already. After about a minute the leaf genin seemed to get the idea and started rambling about his friends. He updated her on his training as they ate, keeping up a steady one sided conversation.

The redhead decided the cup ramen was not a food she liked but she ate it placidly, not wanting to offend her host.

When they finished, Naruto threw the empty cups away and washed the chopsticks before moving them back into the living room. Only when they were settled on the worn sofa did he wrap up his amusing tale about Lee's new training regimen.

His eyes lost their amused sparkle and his face grew serious. "Right. Now it's your turn to talk." He said simply.

The ex-jinchuriki looked away, wondering what to say. 'Tsunade said talking would help...so I guess I have to tell him everything.'

Naruto waited with unusual patience, knowing that whatever she wanted to say had to be important to have dragged her to his window at such an ungodly hour, and able to see that thinking about it was painful to the redhead.

"I remember." She finally said, barely above a whisper.

"Remember what?"

"The Akatsuki." She admitted, her voice slightly stronger than before.

"Oh..." The blonde ninja gasped, horrified. "But...you said the last thing you remembered was moving your sand shield so it wouldn't fall on Sunagakure..."

"I lied." The young woman rubbed her forehead in remembered pain but the words came easier now that she had started. "I remember waking up surrounded by chakra. I couldn't move, just floating in it. Then, the pain started. I think I screamed before I blacked out. The pain...it was so intense it kept pulling me back to awareness. Then I'd pass out again when I couldn't take it anymore."

"Oh, Gaara." Naruto choked out, tears welling up in his blue eyes.

The Suna ninja didn't stop there. She couldn't. It was all coming out, as she lost herself in the memories. "Each time I woke up, I stayed conscious a little longer. I couldn't focus on anything but the pain, so I studied it... It felt like all my muscles were being shredded apart...and my chakra had turned to acid flowing through me. It burned its way out through my mouth, my ears, my eyes..."

The blonde genin looked slightly sick.

"And at some point I noticed that I wasn't the only one screaming." Her eyes flicked to his for a moment before going back to the glazed look she had as she forced herself to remember. "Shukaku was howling in my head. It became my only way to keep track of time. Every time I woke up the agony was the same, but the screaming was a little weaker."

She vaguely noted the normally hyperactive ninja had his eyes clenched tightly shut and he was rigid as he dealt with the images she was painting for him.

"The last time I woke up, I couldn't feel anything." She shrugged slightly. "I guess my nervous system had started to shut down. I knew I wasn't dead because Shukaku was still screaming but he was starting to get quiet and I could hear a thumping noise." She took a deep breath. "It felt like I was there for hours, listening to his screaming fade away. Then all that was left was the thumping noise. It had gotten really slow."

Naruto's eyes shot open in horror.

"I don't know how long it took me to figure out it was my own heartbeat I was hearing. I wasn't thinking clearly. The beat kept getting slower and I realized I was dying. I started counting them then. I made it to three hundred and seventeen. I knew the exact moment Shukaku was completely gone because the beat stopped. I was listening for another one, terrified because it didn't come..." She trailed off. The next thing she had known was waking up with him leaning over her and Chiyo dead in her place.

"I dream about it every night. I know I can't keep going like this but I don't sleep because I can't keep the memories away when I close my eyes." The broken young woman covered her face with her hands, ashamed to admit her weakness but unable to bear it any longer alone. She didn't cry. She had forgotten how a long time ago, and even death had not returned the ability.

Warm arms wrapped around her and he cried for her, silent tears rolling down his scarred cheeks to dampen her hair. "I'm so sorry, Gaara. I should've gotten there faster." He choked out.

"No!" She struggle out of his grip and glared at him. "No. Because the only thing worse than my memories...are the nightmares where they are doing the same thing to you. They will come after you." Her eyes were hard as she hid her fear behind anger. "You stay away from them, Naruto." She knew he didn't have to listen to her. In her current state she had little chance of stopping him if he decided to go after the rogue group. The thought caused her breath to catch in her throat.

The stunned leaf ninja stared at her, his mouth hanging open. 'She has nightmares about people hurting me? All that she's been through and the worst thing she can think of is the Akatsuki getting me...' He pulled her back into his arms and this time she didn't resist, too tired to protest being comforted like a child.

The Konoha ninja cradled the petite woman across his lap and rocked her gently. Her eyes remained dry but his continued to stream, his tears making a damp spot on her coat, as they dripped from his chin. Relieved by his acceptance, the exhausted young woman rested her head against his shoulder and let the soothing motion drive the painful memories back into the depths of her mind.

She was asleep within minutes.

Naruto smiled slightly when he realized she had drifted off. He was honored by the trust she was putting in him, knowing she didn't relax around most people. He eyed his uncomfortable couch for a moment before deciding to put the sleeping redhead in his bed and take the couch himself. It was a testament to his ninja skills and her exhaustion that she did not stir when he stood and carried her into his room.

However, when he tried to put her down, he discovered the sand ninja had a death grip on his shirt. Afraid that trying to pry her loose would wake the traumatized woman up, he made a decision. Nervous but determined, he settled them both on the twin sized bed. Thankfully, neither of them was very big so he managed it without waking the unconscious redhead. He ended up on his side with one arm pinned beneath her as a pillow and her head tucked under his chin as she curled up tightly in her sleep.

'I just hope she doesn't kill me in the morning.' He thought, blushing at the closeness required to keep them from falling off of the narrow mattress. He let his other arm drape over her, rubbing her back absentmindedly.

He brushed his lips on the top of her head, her soft red hair tickling his face. "Nothing will ever hurt you that much again, not as long as I'm around." He promised in a fierce whisper. His mind whirled with the memories she had shared with him.

It was a long time before he was able to join her in sleep.

**To be continued...**

**Author's Note: There you have it! It only took a little while to get that one up. I'd have posted it sooner but I was sick with a stomach virus for a few days. Yech! Anywho, next up: Waking up and Repercussions and then... You'll just have to wait and see what else. ^_^ Please leave me a review! Reviews feed my creativity.**

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	5. Chapter 5: Confrontations & Confessions

**Author's Note: Well, this chapter has been begging for me to go ahead and post it. So you guys get a fast update, but it's a pretty short chapter. Sorry. I was going to add more to it but it didn't flow the way I wanted it to. I think this stands well enough on its own so, after staring at it for a couple of days, I'm going ahead and putting it up despite the brevity of it. I hope you all like it. Please read and review.**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto. I don't own Gaara. I don't own much of anything in this story except for a couple of original characters and the plot. This makes me very sad. I make no money off of this so please don't sue me. **

**Sandstorms and Falling Leaves**

**Chapter Five: Confrontations and Confessions**

When Gaara wasn't back for breakfast, Temari was concerned. When she checked the roof and the redhead wasn't there either, concern turned to worry. When none of her fellow sand ninjas knew where the young Kazekage had gone, worry turned to fear.

* * *

Gaara woke up gradually, which was a novel experience for the perpetual insomniac. The first thing she saw when she opened her eyes was a t-shirt covered chest. She felt a warm arm draped across her waist. It was strange but rather pleasant and she briefly considered going back to sleep, before her sense of duty asserted itself. Reluctantly pulling away from the comfortable embrace yielded her the sight of Naruto smiling cheerfully at her.

"Good morning." The blonde said brightly, "Feeling better?"

The sand ninja considered the question for a minute. Her mind was clearer than it had been in days and the recent muscle aches that had plagued her were nearly gone. She was still tired, but at least she felt like a functioning person again.

'And I didn't dream.' She realized with a start.

"Gaara?" Naruto prompted, with a touch of nervousness in his voice.

"Yes." She said, stifling a yawn. "I feel a lot better."

"That's great." The leaf ninja looked relieved, but a blush stained his cheeks lightly as he continued. "Um...could you maybe...let me up?" He asked, shifting the arm that was pinned under her head and glancing at her hands, stilled tangled in his shirt. "I was supposed to meet Matsuri over an hour ago but I didn't want to wake you."

Gaara bolted upright, nearly knocking Naruto out of the narrow bed in her panic. "What time is it?"

"Almost midday."

"Damn." The redhead grimaced, wanting nothing more than to crawl under the covers and hide.

"What is it?" Blue eyes full of concern followed her movements as she futilely tried to smooth her coat and fluff her hair.

"I didn't tell anyone where I was going. I have to get back before my brother and sister come looking for me." She explained quickly, sliding open the window.

The leaf ninja nodded, unease spreading through him at the thought of the elder two sand siblings catching them in bed together, no matter how innocent the circumstances.

Gaara hesitated halfway out the window. Darting back inside she brushed a feather light kiss on the blonde genin's cheek. "Thanks." She said softly.

She was gone before the bemused leaf ninja could reply.

* * *

When Gaara reached the apartment she shared with her sister, it was deserted. Grateful for the small reprieve, she slipped into her room to change and prepare herself for the day. By the time she came back out, just a few minutes later, all five sand ninjas were waiting in her living room.

'They must have set an alarm in case I returned while they were out searching for me.' She realized. In retrospect it was obvious that they would have done so, but she had been too flustered by the circumstances to think clearly.

Gaara froze as she spotted them. Her posture was deceptively relaxed and her face was an impassive mask as she eyed the varied reactions to her appearance.

Matsuri and Shinta looked exceedingly relieved to see her safe. Sena seemed oddly smug for some reason that the redhead could not begin to fathom. Temari's expression kept shifting as she searched through her conflicting emotions and Kankuro was scowling with his arms crossed across his chest. His face paint made the scowl a great deal more impressive than it might have been otherwise, but Gaara was hardly afraid of his anger. She was more concerned with the hurt she could see lurking in his eyes.

The penitent redhead searched her mind for something to say to take that look out of his eyes and make her sister stop sputtering silently.

"Sorry." The apology slipped from her quietly. It was inadequate and she knew it, but it was all she had.

"Don't do it again." Kankuro replied sharply, before their older sibling could settle on a response.

The redhead nodded. "I'll let someone know next time." She promised. 'Next time? When did I decide there was going to be a next time?' She blinked and stored that thought away to ponder later.

The scowl on her brother's painted face relaxed, marginally satisfied for the time being. "Good enough. Okay, everybody out. We have other things to do today."

He herded Sena's team out of the small apartment, leaving his elder sister still struggling to find her voice and his younger sister to her fate. Temari had always been better at dealing with Gaara's behavior anyway.

The door closed behind the four ninjas and Temari seemed to deflate.

"Where were you?" She demanded tiredly.

"I fell asleep." The younger girl hedged, not wanting to lie but unwilling to say where she had slept. Even though nothing had happened, such behavior was not considered acceptable in old fashioned Sunagakure.

"Hn." The blonde woman narrowed her eyes suspiciously, suspecting the half truth. "You fell asleep? For _ten_ hours?" She questioned sharply. "You've never slept for ten hours at once in your life." She pointed out dryly.

Gaara shrugged and hid her nervousness behind a mask of indifference. "First time for everything."

Temari sighed, knowing her sister didn't usually keep secrets from her without a good reason. What was important enough to make her start now? Switching tactics, the blonde tried again. "You worried all of us."

"I know." The young Kazekage looked down at her feet, regret plain on her features.

"We can't protect you if we don't know how to find you." The blonde pointed out. "Is this going to happen again?"

Gaara hesitated. Her sister was right, though it rankled to think that she needed to be protected. 'Will it need to?' She thought. She had slept soundly for the first time in her memory, in Naruto's bed with his arms around her. 'Can I sleep like that without him?' Pink stained her pale cheeks. 'Do I want to go back there?'

Temari watched her sister's face curiously. She always got the most out of Gaara when the girl was lost in thought. Her face could be quite expressive when she let her guard down. The blush concerned the older sand ninja. 'What have you been up to, little sister?' Her eyebrows raised at the possibilities, none of them good. However, she wasn't about to follow in her brother's clumsy footsteps and jump to conclusions.

Gaara slumped as she admitted to herself that: yes, she would go back to Naruto's bed if she woke up screaming in her own. That meant she was going to have to tell at least one person where she was going and her sister was the only one she trusted not to tell their brother unless it became necessary. Kankuro would not take it well.

Temari was waiting expectantly, arms crossed and one foot tapping impatiently. "Well." She pressed when the younger girl finally looked up.

"I was asleep." Gaara repeated quietly. "At Naruto's apartment."

Temari grimaced. That was not what she had been hoping to hear but she forced herself to remain outwardly calm. Yelling at the redhead would just make her withdraw from the conversation and Temari wanted answers. "What happened?" She managed to ask in an almost even voice.

"Nothing." The younger girl insisted, meeting her sister's eyes squarely. "I needed to talk to someone...about the nightmares." Her gaze drifted to the side as she finally admitted her problem to the older girl.

Temari nodded, encouraging her to continue. It hurt that her sister had gone to the leaf boy instead of her, but she understood the choice.

Gaara seemed relieved that her sister hadn't pressed for details on her nightmares, moving on quickly. "He made me ramen, we talked, and then I fell asleep so he let me stay." She condensed the night into as few words as possible; her cheeks turning red again as she thought about the narrow bed and the warm body snuggled against her when she woke.

Temari raised an eyebrow at the blush. "And you slept better at the fox boy's house because..." She trailed off, wanting the whole truth.

"Because he held me." The redhead admitted reluctantly, her gaze dropping to her feet as she waited for her sister to explode.

Temari sighed in relief. Holding was okay, if not exactly acceptable behavior. She could tell by Gaara's quiet defeated look, that that was what her baby sister had been trying to hide. Seeing the girl's distress, the blonde stepped forward and wrapped her sister in a bone crushing hug.

"Just leave a note next time." She said softly over her shorter sibling's head. She wasn't about to begrudge Gaara a good night's sleep over some prudish Suna laws. Still, as the eldest and being without a mother, it did fall to her to make all the obligatory warnings. "Be discreet and don't get caught staying there. Try to be home by breakfast and if that orange twerp tries anything at all..." She trailed off menacingly. "Well, I trust you can take care of yourself but if you want any help, you know I'm here for you."

Gaara relaxed into her sister's arms, reassured that she wasn't going to be disowned over her sleeping habits. She let the warnings and threats wash over her, almost comforting in the fact that they weren't directed at her, but were her sister's odd way of showing her concern.

Temari released her with a lopsided grin. "Are you hungry? How about an early lunch?"

"I was supposed to meet Hinata for training..."

"We can pick her up on the way and she can join us." Temari suggested. "Cup ramen in the middle of the night doesn't qualify as food." She teased lightly.

Gaara smiled hesitantly back, wrinkling her nose. "That's true...unless you're Naruto." She nodded decisively. "Okay. Let's go."

To be continued...

**Author's Note: There. I hope you like it. Now that the morning after is out of the way, maybe I'll be able to focus on moving the story along. The chunin exams are imminent and we still have our mystery third member to introduce. Please leave a review and let me know what you thought of it! ^_^ **

.


	6. Chapter 6: Butterflies and Bedtimes

**Author's Note: Wow! This chapter got really long on me. More for you all, I guess. Here's the promised luncheon, along with insights into a certain insect using ninja and some fluff to round it all out. Please read and review! Pretty please! *begs on her knees* It feeds my creativity!**

**Disclaimer: Naruto and all of it's components are not mine. I can't afford to buy them because I make no money off of this work...or any other work I've done recently. *sigh* Don't sue please. It will cost you more than you could get from me.**

**Sandstorms and Falling Leaves**

**Chapter Six: Butterflies and Bedtimes  
**

Gaara and her sister found Hinata practicing her byakugan with one of her teammates. Gaara couldn't remember the insect ninja's name though she knew he was the one Kankuro fought during the disastrous chunin exam attack. The young man was much the way she remembered him, distinctive in the fact that he was almost entirely hidden under heavy clothes and sunglasses even in the warm, shadowy clearing.

Hinata spotted them immediately and dropped her jutsu as she turned to greet the redhead with a small smile. "Hello, Gaara-san." She squeaked out, twiddling her fingers nervously. "I-I thought you might not be coming today, be-because you were angry with m-me about yesterday."

Gaara's expression softened slightly. "I'm not angry." She assured the blue haired girl. "You were right." She said simply, trusting the perceptive girl to take that for the apology it was.

Hinata's shy expression transformed into a brilliant smile and her nervous fidgeting stopped as she relaxed. "I'm so glad. You look a lot better today."

Gaara nodded, her sister had already told her that, though not as politely.

"Do you want to train now?" Hinata asked hesitantly, shooting an apologetic glance at her teammate.

Temari took that opportunity to speak up. "Actually, I was going to treat my baby sister to lunch and we wanted to ask you if you'd like to come along."

Hinata's lavender eyes widened, surprised at the offer from the elder sand sibling. "Um...I would be honored to accompany you." She managed, growing shy again as she spoke to the blonde woman.

The hooded youth bowed to the two Suna ninjas before turning to his female teammate. "I'll see you later, Hinata-san." He said slowly.

"You can come too." Gaara wasn't sure, at first, what made her offer but the way the insect user froze and turned to her, disbelief visible in his posture and raised eyebrows, made her realize why she couldn't let him walk away.

The quiet teen seemed horribly lonely and in a way he reminded her of herself. He expected to be excluded from the outing, he was used to it, resigned to it. She briefly wondered why he was an outcast, before she remembered a lot of people disliked bugs and he carried a hive of them around at all times. 'That would do it, I guess.'

"I would not want to intrude, Kazekage-sama." The insect user finally said, politely giving her the chance to retract her offer.

"I insist." Gaara found herself saying.

"Yeah, come on, Shino-kun." Temari added suddenly. Her little sister didn't often reach out to people and she was not going to let such a rare attempt fail, even if she wasn't sure why Gaara was so adamant that the weird bug ninja join them for lunch. "You aren't gonna turn down free food. Are you?"

"Yes, Shino." Hinata added sweetly. "You never eat out with us. Please."

The quiet boy was smart enough to know when he was outnumbered. He was torn between his normal habit of avoiding public outings so he wouldn't have to deal with the way people viewed his family jutsu...and a sincere pleasure at having been invited along.

He bowed politely to the redheaded Suna leader. "Thank you, Kazekage-sama. It is my honor to join you."

Temari grinned. "Great! The more the merrier." She slapped the hooded ninja on the arm casually, earning a startled look from said insect user. 'Sheesh, he's almost as jumpy as Gaara used to be...' It clicked. 'He isn't used to people touching him willingly, because his family's jutsu is creepy. No wonder Gaara got so insistent; she can't stand to see anyone lonely like that.' The blonde outwardly ignored the heavily clothed boy's discomfiture, acting like she hadn't noticed. "Okay, so where do we want to eat?"

Hinata smiled at her teammate, genuinely pleased by his acceptance. "I know a good place we can go." She offered politely.

"Sure. Wherever you want is fine." Temari nodded and gestured for the blue haired ninja to lead the way.

* * *

Shino found himself following along behind his female teammate, with the two Suna ninjas following behind him; feeling rather surreal about the whole situation. He had spoken to the elder Suna sister once or twice in passing during her frequent visits to Konoha, but they were hardly friends. Even more strange, he'd never spoken to the Kazekage, and yet it was the ex-jinchuriki who all but ordered him to join them for lunch.

He didn't know what to make of it.

The young Aburame was so caught up in trying to figure out Gaara's motivation, he didn't realize where Hinata was leading them until they were in the doorway. The Hyuuga heiress breezed through and he could hear the proprietor greeting her warmly. The spectacled ninja balked in the doorway, knowing he would not be so well received.

"Come on bug boy, we're hungry." Temari gave him a playful shove that caused him to take a couple steps into the restaurant just to keep his balance.

The proprietor's friendly tone immediately went cold. "Excuse me, Hinata-san." He said from where he had been leading the shy girl to a table. "You." Shino stiffened at the disrespectful tone. "Get out! I won't have you and your roaches in my shop!"

Shino sighed, the action well hidden by his layers of clothing. Not wanting to make a scene, he turned to the pair standing in the doorway behind him. "I'll go now." He offered quietly. "Please enjoy your lunch, Kazekage-sama. Perhaps I can join you another time."

His movement had revealed his company to the restaurant owner and the man's face went from crimson with fury to pale from shock as he took in the two Suna women.

Gaara stood with her arms crossed and her eyes narrowed in anger. Her lips were pressed into a tight line, and the dust from outside swirled in and around her feet, as she visibly fought to keep her temper in check. It was a habit she had developed to control Shukaku and even though she wasn't likely to go on a killing rampage anymore, she still didn't want to let her considerable temper get the best of her.

Her sister felt no such compunction. "You dare insult the Kazekage's esteemed guest?" The blonde snarled in a haughty voice she generally reserved for her duties as Gaara's official honor guard at formal meetings.

"No...Well, yes but...I mean...I didn't know..." The flustered civilian stammered, trying to salvage the situation and failing miserably.

"Hinata-chan." Temari's tone became kinder, snapping the pale eyed teen out of her stunned silence.

"Shino-kun." The shy girl approached her teammate and laid a comforting hand on his arm. "Let's go somewhere else, okay. The service here is terrible." Her pupilless eyes were hard as they swept over the sputtering restaurateur.

Despite his embarrassment, Shino had to hide a small smile. Hearing his normally polite teammate insulting a respected shop owner on his behalf was oddly gratifying.

The Hyuuga heiress mustered all the dignity that had ever been trained into her by her father as she swept out of the suddenly silent eatery. Shino followed her sedately, his emotions well hidden beneath his hood and glasses. Temari followed them, not as graceful as Hinata but still managing to exude an air of power in her fury.

Gaara had finally reigned in her temper enough to speak and what she said made the prejudiced man's knees go weak. "The Hokage will hear of this."

The furious redhead strode away with a swirl of dust to mark her anger, ignoring the panicked civilian trying to apologize. Overtaking the others quickly, she led them into the first deserted alley she found and rounded on the Aburame heir.

"What was that?" She asked sharply, already having her own suspicions but wanting to hear them confirmed.

Shino shrugged. "Some of the villagers do not allow my family into their establishments. They think we are...unclean, for our association with the kikaichu."

Gaara nodded. It was pretty much as she suspected, but something in the way the hooded teen so casually brushed off his poor treatment set her on edge, hitting far too close to her own issues. How could he be so accepting of being treated like filth by the very people he worked to protect?

Hinata interrupted just as Gaara was about to pose that question. The blue haired young woman's eyes were bright with unshed tears for her friend. "Shino-kun...is...is that why you n-never come w-with Kiba and I?"

The young man turned his face away from his teammate before nodding. "Having me with you would severely limit the choice of places you and Kiba could go. I did not want to be an inconvenience."

Hinata's lavender eyes finally shed some of the liquid she had been fighting to hold back and she shook her head to stop further tears. "Shino-kun, you are a brilliant ninja and a good friend...and that is the stupidest thing I have ever heard you say."

Shino turned back to the usually polite girl, a look of shock on his nearly hidden face.

Temari spoke up at that moment, having gotten over the bout of muttered cursing that had bubbled from her since they left the restaurant. "Your Hokage allows this sort of prejudice?" She asked sharply, her opinion of Tsunade taking a dive at the very thought. It seemed more like something the sand siblings' father would have done; and Temari's opinion of her father had bottomed out around the time he killed her mother to turn her baby brother...er...sister into a monster.

Shino blushed and was glad that most of it was well hidden. "I don't think anyone has ever bothered the Hokage with it. It is only a minor issue and she is very busy."

Gaara's aqua eyes narrowed and her voice was low and menacing. "Well, she's going to hear about it now. I will not let such an injustice stand."

Temari laid a nervous hand on her volatile little sister's shoulder, seeing a glimpse of the old Gaara in that fury. She wasn't afraid of her sister anymore, but not all of the murderous temper that had marked the redhead's younger years had been from Shukaku; and now that Gaara wasn't constantly worried about the one-tail taking advantage of her anger to rest away her control, Gaara had been showing her emotions a bit more easily, even the negative ones. It was a mixed blessing in the blonde sand ninja's opinion. "Well, we should still eat first. You know anywhere we can go where you won't get that sort of reaction, Shino-kun?"

Shino hesitated for a moment before nodding. He knew of a few places that catered to ninja and wouldn't bat an eye at his presence. However, he wanted to make up for the unpleasantness his company had caused, so he led the way to somewhere more personal to him.

Hinata, being more familiar with the layout of the village, realized where they were going first. Her eyes widened as they reached the gates that separated the Aburame homes from the rest of the village. Unlike her politically active family, the insect users were somewhat reclusive and she knew that few people ventured beyond those gates that were not part of the family.

Shino sent his insects through a hole in the center of the gate and a few moments later it swung ponderously open on well oiled hinges. "Please allow me to treat you all to lunch at my home." He bowed. "To thank you for coming to my defense earlier."

Gaara wondered if they were the first to ever do so. The insect user certainly seemed as if he hadn't expected it. "Thank you. You honor Sunagakure by allowing my sister and I into your home." She returned his bow with a nod as she graciously accepted the hospitality. She knew it was not lightly offered, and it displayed a lot of trust in the alliance between their villages.

Hinata bowed too. "I-I would l-love to see your f-family home, Shino-kun."

Temari simply patted the teen on the shoulder and grinned. "Thanks. So what are you cooking?"

Shino smiled behind his high collar, pleased that they hadn't even hesitated to accept the invitation. Visitors were uncommon in the Aburame household, and almost never comfortable about being there. He turned and led them through a space between buildings, coming out in his favorite area of the compound.

The garden stretched out in front of them; trees and flowering shrubs grew wild, interrupted only rarely by winding footpaths. The Aburame complex butted up against the forest surrounding the village and it looked like they had invited some of the forest inside their walls. Insects of all types flourished within the false forest and their voices washed over him in welcome.

Gaara looked around in wonder. She had seen forests before, had walked through them plenty of times; but the idea of having so much life just outside your door was still mind boggling to someone raised in a desert. Temari was in a similar state of shock, having never seen so many colorful plants and insects gathered in one place.

Only Hinata was able to find her voice, after a few moments to just take it all in. "Shino-kun, it's so beautiful." She almost whispered, afraid of scaring away the butterflies that were flitting not more than a foot away.

Shino held out his hand and several of the vibrant creatures landed on it, causing him to smile slightly. "Thank you." He gently shook the insects off and started walking down one of the paths. "This way please."

The three girls followed in silence, enjoying the lush atmosphere.

Shino led them to his home, one of the larger houses pressed against the village wall. The house was built in a very traditional style, with sliding shoji doors and tatami covered wooden floors. The hooded ninja slid the screen aside and entered the small entryway, toeing off his shoes and slipping into his house slippers as the others did the same with the provided guest slippers.

"I'm home." He called out.

"Shino? I thought you were going to see if that Hyuuga girl wanted to practice...was she training with the Kazekage again?" A female voice floated from the back of the house, followed by the appearance of a tall, slender woman wearing an apron and a kerchief, over dark hair that was just beginning to show signs of gray. She froze when she spotted the small group waiting by the door. "Oh!" Brown eyes widened for a second as she took in the company her son was keeping, before a slightly embarrassed smile spread over her face and she blushed to match Gaara's hair. "I see you found them..."

Shino shrugged. "Yes, Kaasan. The Kazekage and her sister invited me to eat lunch with them...there was difficulty in finding a restaurant so I brought them here."

Intelligence and anger flashed across the older woman's face as she correctly deduced what sort of trouble her son might have had. "Hmph. I see." She almost visibly pushed her irritation away and smiled sweetly at her guests. "Welcome to our home."

"Kazekage-sama, Temari-san, Hinata-san; this is my mother, Shiori Aburame." The hooded teen introduced politely. "Kaasan, this is the Kazekage Gaara-sama, her elder sister Temari-san, and my teammate Hinata Hyuuga-san."

The older woman shot her son a grin to say she was pleased that he had remembered his manners and bowed politely to the three girls. "It is an honor to meet all of you. I apologize for my appearance. I was not expecting company." She fluttered, smoothing her apron and hair self-consciously.

Gaara nodded in return. "No need to apologize. We are sorry to have intruded unannounced."

"Nonsense." The woman waved off the apology. "I'm always happy to have visitors and anyone my son trusts enough to bring home most welcome indeed."

Shino closed his eyes in embarrassment, glad the action was hidden behind his glasses and beginning to think he should have just taken the group to one of the restaurants that didn't mind his presence. As much as he loved her, his mother had a knack for making him feel awkward.

"Thank you for the hospitality, Aburame-san." Hinata offered, smiled sweetly.

"Please call me Shiori." The woman ordered with a grinned, her dark eyes took in the shy, blue haired girl with a calculating gleam that Hinata didn't understand. "That goes for all of you. I'm not such a stickler for formality as my son...or my husband."

"Thank you, Shiori-san." the redhead nodded, a hint of a smile playing at the edge of her mouth. She found herself liking the Aburame matriarch immediately. "Please call me Gaara."

Shiori blinked, obviously surprised by the request from the high ranking sand ninja, but she recovered quickly and the redhead found herself the recipient of that blinding grin. "You honor me, Gaara-san. Now, Shino-kun said you were going to eat lunch so you must be hungry. The dinig room is back here. Anything you like, in particular?"

Gaara shook her head and Temari shrugged. Hinata blushed and looked at her slippered feet as she followed the vibrant woman deeper into the house, not wanting to be a troublesome guest.

They reached a small dining area and the bundle of energy that was Shiori Aburame soon had them seated on cushions around the low table, drinking tea as she prepared their lunch in the kitchen.

"Wow." Temari said softly, not wanting the woman in the other room to hear her. "She's...um...not what I would've expected of your mother, Shino-kun."

"How so?" The spectacled teen asked flatly.

The blonde shrugged. "She's just so...light."

An eyebrow arched from behind round lenses in response to that and the elder sand sibling pressed on, not wanting to offend her host.

"I mean...you and your dad are so serious and reserved...and Shiori-san is...er...not so much."

Shino nodded, a smile playing around his hidden lips. "Ah, yes. That's true."

Shiori chose that moment to enter with a laden tray of onigiri, pickles, and grilled fish. "That's right." She said with a wicked grin, unashamed to have been eavesdropping. "Someone has to get my son and his father to have a little fun every now and then. You girls will help me with Shino-kun, ne?" She winked at Hinata, causing the shy girl to blush and stammer in confusion.

Shino inconspicuously tried to sink into the floor, with no success. Gaara wasn't sure how to respond to that so she said nothing, but Temari laughed and clapped the embarrassed insect user on the back heartily.

"Sure, Shiori-san. He's in good hands. Kankuro and I have to do the same thing with my baby sister here sometimes." She said, nudging the redhead gently with an elbow. "We'll be sure to drag Shino along next time."

Gaara turned slightly red, but she forgave her sister for the teasing when she saw that it seemed to have helped Shino feel less embarrassed. Besides, Temari wasn't lying, she and Kankuro had often pulled the dedicated young Kazekage from her office to get her to relax for a little while. It was what family was for, or so they told her. Still, she wasn't going to take such teasing lying down.

"Yes." She deadpanned to the hooded leaf ninja. "Perhaps between the two of us, we can curtail my siblings' idea of fun...to something involving less property damage."

Temari looked affronted, but her eyes sparkled with humor. "Hey! That was just the one time!"

The two Suna siblings were rewarded with a small chuckle from the hooded ninja and a lighter round of giggles from his mother and Hinata, the latter of which tried to stifle hers behind her hands.

Shiori passed out the plates and smiled brightly. "I'll leave you kids to eat. If you need anything, just call out."

As she left the room, she glanced back and smiled at the sight. Shiori was overjoyed to see her son making an effort to interact with someone. She loved her family dearly but her boy was too much like his father when it came to dealing with people, and she had often worried about him being lonely.

'And that Hyuuga girl...' The Aburame matriarch's intelligent eyes glittered thoughtfully. 'Shino talks about her a lot, and the girl seems genuinely sweet and caring.' Shiori went about her business with a happy smile for the rest of the day.

* * *

Gaara went to bed that night with a pleasant day's thoughts to lull her to sleep, but even they failed to keep the nightmares away and she bolted upright with her teeth clenched around her knuckle just a couple of hours later.

The redhead fought with herself for a few minutes. She could try to go back to sleep, just to most likely repeat the whole process several more times before dawn. She could get up and stay awake the rest of the night, which had led to her poor health the last couple of weeks. The last option was the most appealing but also the most distressing: she could go back to Naruto and see if it really was his presence that had allowed her to sleep in peace the night before.

It was wrong by Suna's laws and it could get her removed from her position as Kazekage. 'Though I'm not really the Kazekage right now anyway...' Her tired mind pointed out. She put her feet on the floor and rested her head in her hands, debating.

"Go ahead." A sleepy voice suddenly broke the silence.

"Temari?" Shadowed aqua eyes blinked in shock at the blonde leaning in her doorway.

"You need to sleep, Sis." The older teen said with a shrug. "If Naruto's presence lets you do that, then it's okay. I trust you not to let him take advantage of the situation and I won't tell anyone." The wind ninja sighed and looked away. "I just can't stand to see you hurting like this, Gaara."

"Temari...I..." Gaara gave up on words and was across the room in an instant, thin arms wrapped around her sister.

Temari smiled and hugged the redhead back fiercely. Gaara wasn't one to casually touch people, the concept still difficult for her after going without real human contact for so long. The eldest sand sibling treasured the rare moments when her sister would reach out to her...or to anyone for that matter.

The embrace lasted only a few seconds before the redhead pulled away. "Thank you." With that the younger girl was gone, not even bothering to grab her coat or her shoes.

Temari shook her head in amusement, and made plans to remind her sister of those important accessories the next morning. Satisfied that Gaara would be okay, the blonde retired to her own bed.

* * *

Gaara knocked on the window nervously.

Naruto hadn't even fallen asleep yet, so he was quick to let her in with a wry smile. "Hey Gaara. You...um...need to talk again?"

The little redhead shook her head as she slipped inside the dark room. "No. I...can I sleep here?"

Blue eyes widened, but the leaf genin nodded, his blush visible even in the low light. "Okay, you...uh...want me to take the couch or something?"

Gaara shook her head again. "No...stay."

Wordlessly, the blushing blonde teen slid over to give her room and she crawled in beside him, hiding her face in his chest and clutching his t-shirt in her fists as she had the previous night.

"Gaara..." Naruto said as he draped his arm over her waist and rested his chin on her hair. "Why me?"

The redhead stiffened for a moment before relaxing into the loose embrace. Her response was slightly muffled but he heard it well enough. "Because...you are my most precious person."

Naruto grinned and lightly kissed the top of her head. "That's good...because you're mine too."

The pair was asleep within minutes.

* * *

Naruto woke the redhead at dawn and she was back in her own apartment in time for breakfast. Temari smirked knowingly and Gaara's face tried to coordinate with her hair but neither said anything. By unspoken agreement they behaved as if their late night conversation had never happened; as far as anyone needed to know the young Kazekage had spent the night in her own bed.

The next night the window was open and Gaara crawled into his waiting arms without having to ask.

**To be continued...**

**Author's note: Okay. There you have. I'm not sure how I feel about this chapter. Is it too much filler? Hmm...you tell me. Next chapter: We finally meet the mysterious third member of Naruto's chunin exam squad! Too bad the exams are starting the next day... O_o' Please review and wish Naruto luck! He'll need it!**


	7. Chapter 7: Two's Company Three's a Squad

Author's Note: This story is not dead and neither am I. I've been without internet for ages, I started a new job, hubby started a new job as well, my hubby and I are in the process of finding a new place to live (so much packing and such is occurring), and we are also becoming pretty involved in our church. So things are mostly good but very busy and before all of that I had a bout of writer's block that could have rivaled the Great Wall of China. That seems to have passed and I've been back working on fics in my spare time for a little while now. I finally have a chance to post the couple of chapters I've finished. I hope someone is still willing to read this after all this time. Drop me a review please, just so I know somebody is still interested. Thanks very much. The next chapter is already finished. I'm just proofreading it...I wonder if I should hold it hostage for reviews? Hmm...five reviews or five days, whichever comes first. Yes that sounds good. ^_^

Disclaimer: Naruto is not mine. Not sure what I'd do with him if he was. lol. He's way too young for me and I don't feel like raising such a rambunctious teenager. I make no money from this story.

Sandstorms and Falling Leaves

Chapter 7: Two's Company, Three's a Squad.

Naruto woke up, as he had for the past several days, to find red hair tickling his chin and a warm body curled up beside him in his small bed. He smiled and nuzzled his face against the crimson strands to wake the young woman in his arms as gently as possible.

Gaara came to awareness with reflexes honed in a childhood plagued by assassins. Aqua colored eyes flew open and she took an instant to survey her surroundings before the tension in her muscles drained away and she leaned into the blonde's embrace.

"Good morning." Naruto said, smiling as he pulled away to look at her. He had learned quickly to be careful not to startle her when he woke her. One experience with the Sand ninja's reflexes was plenty. He was just lucky she had caught herself in time to keep from doing any real damage.

Gaara looked up at him with a small yawn. "Morning." She said quietly.

Naruto was about to suggest she go when his attention wandered to the calendar on the wall. His brow furrowed as he eyed it.

"What is it?" The redhead asked, catching the shift in his mood.

"The chunin exam starts tomorrow." The blonde pointed out, his voice unusually serious. "And we still haven't even met our third squad member. I mean...what if Tsunade-baachan can't find someone in time?" He trailed off nervously.

"She will." Gaara assured him, sitting up and grabbing her coat from the floor beside the bed. The sun was just beginning to rise and she didn't have much time to get back across the village before the day began in earnest and sneaking back became much more difficult. "I have to go."

Naruto nodded, his eyes still on the distressing evidence of the date. Self doubt was eating away at him; what if he still wasn't good enough to make chunin? Would Tsunade really make him quit being a ninja or would he have to take the exam over and over until he passed?

Gaara frowned, standing by the bed and watching him for a long moment before leaning down and taking his face between her hands. Her not-quite green eyes stared into startled blue ones, demanding the young man's attention.

"Tsunade will find a suitable genin for your team and you will pass the exam." She told him firmly. "I know it."

"How do you know?" The Leaf ninja asked tiredly.

"Because you are Naruto Uzumaki and you are going to be Hokage someday." With that declaration she nervously leaned in and pressed her lips to his.

The kiss was chaste at first, as their few previous encounters had been, but Gaara found herself longing for something more. Naruto's eyes shot open as he felt a warm wetness hesitantly touch his lips. His mouth opened in shock and the redhead's quick tongue took advantage to probe into the moist pink cavern. He froze, never having experienced a French kiss before. Sure, he knew the basic idea; how could he not after two years wandering the world with a master pervert like Jiraiya; but he'd never actually gone so far as to use that knowledge.

Gaara noticed how Naruto tensed and reluctantly ceased her activities, pulling back slowly and releasing him. She lowered her eyes to the floor, berating herself for being foolish. She had never tried kissing anyone like that and she was certain she had done it all wrong. "I'm sorry, I shouldn't have..."

Her apology was cut off as the blonde grabbed her and pulled her back into his arms, covering her lips with his own and nervously requesting entry to her mouth with his tongue. Startled but pleased, the young woman responded immediately and the hesitancy left them both as the kiss quickly grew heated. Their tongues battled for dominance and the ensuing minutes left them both breathless and flushed when they finally separated.

"That was..." Naruto breathed, looking dazedly at her, his hand tangled in the crimson hair at the base of her skull.

"Yes." She agreed, not needing words at the moment.

"I've never..." The blonde blushed but pressed on, needing her to know she'd been his first real kiss. "I've never kissed anyone like that before."

"Me either." Suddenly feeling shy about what she had just done, she found herself unable to meet his eyes. Her glance drifted to the window and the redhead stiffened in dismay. "The sun is up. I have to go."

"Oh...okay." Naruto nodded but as she tried to move past him towards the window, he caught her hand. "Gaara." He waited until he was sure he had her full attention. "I love you."

Gaara stood, dumbfounded at his words for a moment. Finally, she managed to find her voice. "I...Naruto, I..." She wasn't sure if what she felt was love. Naruto made her feel safe; wanted; at peace...but did she love him? Her experience with love was so limited. She loved her siblings, but that was different from the love she felt for her village, and she was told romantic love was different from either of those. "I don't know." She said honestly. "I care for you, Naruto. I just...I don't know that I'm sure what love feels like." She looked him in the eyes, trying to show him the feelings she held for him, feelings she wasn't sure how to define. "Please, give me time to find out."

Naruto nodded slowly, trying to keep his disappointment off his face. She hadn't rejected him outright but his heart ached to hear her return his sentiment. Her eyes told him what she would say but there was conflict and insecurity in her features. He couldn't begrudge her cautiousness; if he had been betrayed as badly as she had...by people who claimed to love her, he might have had trouble trusting his emotions as well. "Take all the time you need." He said with a weak smile. "I'll be right here when you're ready to give me your answer."

The redhead smiled sadly. She didn't want to hurt him but she wouldn't lie either, and she just wasn't sure if her feelings for the blonde ninja went that deep. "Thank you." She leaned in and kissed his cheek softly before leaving to make her way back to her own apartment.

It was several long minutes before the leaf ninja managed to prod his body into moving from where he stood. The more he thought it over, the more he was sure Gaara loved him, even if she couldn't say it just yet. He wasn't known for his patience but he decided that in this case it would be worth the wait.

His hand drifted to his slightly swollen lips, and he grinned. "Yeah, definitely worth it." He mumbled, before finally getting ready to start the day.

* * *

Gaara slipped into her apartment and found her sister already awake and waiting for her with breakfast.

Temari took one look at her little sister's flushed cheeks and slightly too red lips and her eyes narrowed. "Morning." She greeted the redhead, eying her suspiciously.

"Yes." Gaara replied, growing redder under her older sister's scrutiny.

"Anything you want to tell me, Sis?" The blonde woman asked, keeping her voice carefully even.

Gaara looked away, turning positively crimson. "I...I kissed Naruto." She admitted, feeling ashamed of herself.

Temari breathed a sigh of relief, it wasn't as serious as she had feared. "Oh." She smiled and laid a hand on the shorter girl's shoulder. "Is he a good kisser?" She asked wickedly.

"Temari!" Gaara gasped, mortified at her sister's boldness.

The blonde just laughed. "Lighten up, Sis. It was just a kiss, ne? No harm done."

Gaara frowned slightly, it was more than just one kiss but she wasn't going to correct her sister's assumption. However, she did need to talk to someone. "There's more..."

The eldest sand sibling felt her blood freeze. 'I'll kill him...'

"Naruto...he...he told me he loves me."

The quiet words distracted the blonde from plotting various ways to annihilate one hyperactive jinchuriki. "Oh...and what did you say to that?" She asked cautiously.

"I...told him I wasn't sure." Aqua eyes closed in confusion as the flood gates holding her emotions in check broke. "How am I supposed to know if I love him? I care about him...I know he'd do anything for me...How do you know that you love someone?"

The blonde woman ran a hand through her bangs and closed her eyes, trying to think of how to answer that question. Romantic love was firmly on the list of topics their family did not discuss, but for Gaara's sake she would have to try. "It's a little different for everyone, I think." She hedged, opening her eyes and smiling hopefully, but Gaara's expression told her that it was not enough of an answer. Sighing, the elder Suna sibling pressed on, only slightly surprised to find a certain lazy leaf ninja's face rose to her mind as she spoke.

"Well, when you love someone you, uh...you want to be near them, you look for them even when you don't have any reason to see them. You might even volunteer to do jobs you don't like in order to be near them." The blonde thought for a few seconds. "You do things they like in order to make them happy, even if you'd rather be doing something else or don't like what they want to do." Her mind drifted to hours spent cloud watching and playing shogi. "And you think about them a lot, you wonder what they're doing when you aren't with them." She wracked her brain. "You care about their safety more than your own. You want them to be happy...but you also want them to succeed, so sometimes you might push them when they're being lazy..." Temari trailed off at her sister's thoughtful look. "Any questions?"

Gaara nodded. "How does love feel? The emotion itself..." She asked flatly.

"I don't know...It feels warm, sort of...in your guts...and kind of fluttery when you look at the person." Temari knew she was screwing the explanation up and she struggled to think of a better description. "It makes your heart beat faster...uh..."

Gaara nodded, taking in all of the information passively.

Temari stopped and took a deep breath, finally having come up with an explanation that seemed to fit. "Being in love means that being with the person makes you really happy, and it almost physically hurts to be separated from them. It means their happiness and safety is more important to you than your own." The tall blonde was more than a little uncomfortable with how her own words echoed her relationship with Shikamaru but she had one last important point to add. "Most importantly, love isn't something you can figure out with your head, no matter how smart you are. It isn't an exact science, Sis. You just have to trust your feelings and hope."

The younger woman considered her sister's words thoughtfully before nodding. "Thank you." She said slowly. "Oh." A small smile lifted one corner of her mouth. "I saw Nara the other day. He says hello."

Temari blushed as her sister brought up the very person she had been thinking about.

The redhead swiftly moved past her sputtering sibling and darted into her room to get ready to meet Hinata.

* * *

Naruto and Matsuri were sparring in the treetops over their assigned training area. Matsuri's taijutsu was not her strong point and the pair had spent a great deal of time improving her hand to hand skills, even going so far as to request assistance from Rock Lee for a couple of back-breaking days. Naruto was throwing clones at her and she was holding her own admirably when a shout from below brought them both to a sweaty halt.

"Oi! Naruto-niisan!"

Naruto looked down and smiled, recognizing the familiar form of Konohamaru along with another person that he didn't know. "Konohamaru!" He hopped down from his perch, landing in front of the younger boy. "What brings you out here?"

The younger genin puffed himself up. "My mission is to deliver the third member of the Leaf/Sand chunin exam squad and make introductions." He said, obviously proud to have been given such an important assignment.

"Oh." Naruto looked at the man accompanying his young friend for the first time and his eyes widened in disbelief.

Before him stood the oldest genin he'd ever seen. The guy had to be at least forty years old, with dark brown hair that was beginning to gray at the temples, and a bushy mustache over smiling lips. Gray eyes peered back at the hyperactive ninja from behind small round glasses and his hitae-ate was tied around his head with the knot resting over his right ear. He was dressed in a dark green sweater vest with a white dress shirt, a brown necktie and khaki slacks.

"Naruto-niisan Matsuri-san, this is Manabu Akado-san." Konohamaru continued. "Akado-san, this is Naruto Uzumaki-san and Matsuri-san of Sunagakure."

Altogether, the guy didn't look much like a ninja at all.

"Are you really a genin?" Naruto blurted.

"Indeed I am." The man bowed politely. "A pleasure to meet you, Uzumaki-san."

Konohamaru grinned, his duty successfully completed. "Ja ne, Naruto-niisan." He made a hasty exit.

The three genin stood in uncomfortable silence for a few moments until Matsuri stepped forward nervously. "Nice to meet you, Akado-san. I am Matsuri." She bowed politely. "I hope we work well together."

"As do I, Matsuri-san." The older genin smiled and scratched his neck sheepishly. "This will be my fourth attempt at the exam and if I don't pass this time I'm afraid I may have to give up."

Naruto blinked. "You've taken the exam three times already? How far did you get?"

"I've never passed the preliminary written portion."

Naruto and Matsuri sweatdropped and looked at each other. This was going to be harder than they had hoped. However Naruto was nothing if not resilient.

"Okay...well we better start training then. We have to be sure we can all pass that test tomorrow." He announced with determination.

The older genin had worked as the Hokage's accountant for nearly twenty years. He was happy with his position but wanted to make chunin so he could teach at the academy as well. He also rattled off a bunch of information about improved retirement benefits that meant very little to either of the young ninjas.

Naruto and Matsuri soon found their new teammate to be a wealth of information about the first stage of the chunin exam.

"The first part of the exam is mostly about working together. We either all pass or we all fail." The older man explained. "The trick is figuring out which actions will be best for your team. That is what you have to do to pass."

Naruto frowned. "What do you mean?"

"Well, once they told us if any of us walked out on the exam or got caught cheating we would all fail. If we stayed to the end we would pass or fail individually but if we failed, we would never be allowed to take the exam again. So that time staying was what was best for the team. Unfortunately, one of my teammates got caught cheating."

Naruto nodded. He had experienced that version of the test.

Manabu continued. "Another time we were told that if any of us failed the test the entire squad would be disqualified from ever taking the test again, but if we walked out we could try to qualify in the next exam. To pass that exam all three members of the team needed to walk out. My team had one member that refused to come with us so we all failed and he was disqualified from becoming a chunin."

The two younger genin frowned at that.

Manabu pressed on. "Since the exam is presented differently each time, we won't be able to know for certain what will allow us to pass but as long as we all keep the good of the squad ahead of our own interests I think we have an excellent chance of passing tomorrow."

Naruto grinned. "Right. No problem. We can do this, ne?"

Matsuri nodded grimly. "Sure."

The orange clad ninja stood and stretched. "So, Akado-san, assuming we pass the first test, what can you do in the rest of the exam?"

"I know the basics of course, though I may be a bit rusty. I specialize in a genjutsu that I invented myself. The targets experience a sort of warped probability environment in which any offensive action they take will appear to result in a critical failure of some sort."

Naruto stared blankly but Matsuri nodded thoughtfully.

"So it's sort of a bad luck jutsu?"

Manabu nodded and grinned. "That is an excellent way of explaining it."

Naruto grinned. "Well, that could be pretty helpful. You two ready to get in some practice?"

Matsuri nodded, smiling.

Manabu stood and brushed off his slacks. "Ready."

* * *

The odd trio of genins spent the rest of the day sparring and testing out each others' jutsus and Manabu treated them all to ramen for dinner. By the time Naruto headed home, he was feeling much better about the upcoming exam.

'I'm Naruto Uzumaki. Of course I'll pass.' He thought to himself as he unlocked his door and entered his living room.

His senses gave him only a moment of warning before a gust of wind slammed the door behind him and the jinchuriki found himself trapped in his own living room.

Gaara's sister was sitting on his couch, eying him in a manner that wasn't entirely friendly.

"Uh, hello Temari." The leaf ninja greeted nervously, remembering the last time he had been alone in the company of one of Gaara's siblings.

"Hello foxboy." The sand jonin smiled coldly. "We need to talk."

Naruto gulped at her tone but smiled. "About what?"

"About you kissing my baby sister."

He blushed and scratched his neck. "Oh..that..." He said weakly.

" Yeah that. I just wanted to tell you to make sure that is as far as it goes." Temari ordered, rising and approaching the suddenly confused leaf ninja. "I don't know if Gaara has told you anything about Suna customs or laws. However, in case it slipped her mind, I feel you ought to know that anyone else from home finding out about the sleeping arrangement you two have, could not only cost her the title of kazekage, it could get her exiled from Suna permanently."

Blue eyes widened. "But we're only sleeping..."

"No one else is going to believe this is as innocent as it better be..." The pigtailed woman interrupted with a glare. "So you make sure it stays a secret, and if you ever feel like doing something less innocent with my baby sister, you're damn well gonna marry her first if you ever want to see dawn again."

Naruto swallowed hard and nodded his understanding.

"Good." Temari seemed to relax a bit. "Now that that's out of the way, good luck with the chunin exam tomorrow." She grinned and slapped him on the back amiably as she brushed past him and headed for the door.

"Umm...Thanks." The bemused leaf ninja replied, turning to watch his unexpected guest leave. "Oh, and Temari...I'm glad Gaara has a big brother and sister to look out for her like this. I don't think she could have come so far so fast without you two supporting her."

"Hn." The blonde woman replied, blushing slightly at the leaf genin's words. Temari was careful to keep her back to him as she hurried out. 'Well, it's pretty easy to see why Gaara's fallen for him. I come into his home and threaten him and he compliments my family loyalty.' She shook her head as she walked along the streets back to her apartment.

* * *

Gaara was waiting for her when she arrived with a simple meal of rice, pickles and broiled fish.

"Looks great, Sis. You've been practicing." She grinned. "You're gonna make Naruto a great wife someday, ne?"

"Temari!" The younger girl's face flamed and she threw a potholder at her sister's head.

Dodging the harmless missile with ease, the blonde chuckled and dug into her meal with gusto.

* * *

To be continued...


	8. Chapter 8: Tests and Trials

Author's Note: Wow! Five reviews already! ^_^ As promised, here's Chapter Eight. The Chunin exam finally begins! Please let me know if you spot any errors. I thought I would have more time to proofread this. ^_^'

Disclaimer: Don't own much of anything. I make no money off this story.

Sandstorms and Falling Leaves

Chapter 8: Tests and Traps

* * *

Naruto met Matsuri and Manabu outside the academy where the first test of the chunin exam was set to take place.

"Alright, let's go!" Naruto bounced excitedly as he led the way into the building.

Ten minutes later the three genins stopped in confusion as they arrived back outside.

"Huh?" The yellow haired jinchuriki scratched his head. "We should be on the second floor...but this is where we came in."

"It's a genjutsu." Manabu told the blonde. He quickly dispelled the effect from himself.

"Oh yeah, I knew that." Naruto said sheepishly, doing the same.

Matsuri rolled her eyes and followed suit before the three tackled the academy building again.

* * *

Five minutes later, the group arrived at the correct room and were allowed inside by a beaming Rock Lee.

In the waiting area outside the exam room they got their first real glimpse of the other chunin candidates. There were fifteen squads participating in the preliminary exam. Naruto recognized a few of the leaf ninjas as having been at the academy with him, just a year or two behind his class. He eyed the squads from other villages nervously, thinking of the last chunin exam he had taken and the terrible attack that had come with it...of the loss of the third hokage and the start of Sasuke's descent into madness.

Then he glanced at Matsuri and smiled, thinking that even from that horrible tragedy, good things had happened. Konohagakure was stronger than ever because of the alliance with Sunagakure.

It seemed like an hour had passed before the classroom door opened.

"Take your seat as your name is called." The proctor commanded before proceeding to read off names from the list he held.

The list was alphabetical so Naruto found himself the very last one to be called; sometimes the name Uzumaki was inconvenient. He was jittery with anticipation by the time he got to his seat, so much so that he nearly missed his chair and only ninja reflexes kept him from landing in the floor.

At last all the chunin hopefuls were seated and the proctor explained the testing procedure.

"You will each be given a test with nine questions about the theory behind different kinds of ninjutsu. You will have one hour to complete the test. These four chunins will be watching for anyone attempting to cheat." He gestured at Iruka, Hinata, Shino, and Kiba who were holding the exam papers and waiting for the signal to pass them out. "Anyone caught cheating will be immediately disqualified, as will their squad." He paused to ensure he still had their attention.

"You may give up at anytime if you feel you cannot pass the test. However, you will also cause the other members of your squad to fail if you do so. At the end of the hour, those that remain will be given one final question to answer. Anyone who attempts the final question and gets it wrong will be disqualified and will not be allowed to retake the exam for at least five years. If your entire squad gets the question wrong, you will all be banned from the chunin exams for ten years. Any questions?" The room was silent except for a few nervous coughs. "Begin."

Naruto accepted his exam from Kiba, who grinned encouragingly at the yellow haired genin. The jinchuriki scrawled his name in the blank provided and then examined the test.

'On the provided diagram, draw and label the chakra network...triangulate the correct speed and trajectory at which a kunai must be thrown to hit the target presented in the diagram below...' Naruto frowned, this test was just as hard as the last time. Still, he had a lot more experience now, surely he could do something.

He glanced up as Hinata gestured and Shino and Kiba proceeded to remove several genins she had seen cheating. Their teammates followed them out in short order.

Resolutely, Naruto started writing. He wasn't sure if his answers were correct but at least this time his paper wouldn't be blank.

* * *

The hour passed with agonizing slowness, the number of squads dwindled as more and more people either cracked under the pressure and walked out or were caught by the watchful chunins.

Naruto was pleased that his squad was still in the running. The few times he dared to steal a glance around, Matsuri was hard at work on her paper, scribbling and rubbing out answers nervously. Meanwhile Manabu was by far the calmest of their trio, within half an hour the complex test was laying face down in front of the older genin while he waited for the last question.

'Well, no wonder. He probably has all this stuff memorized by now.' Naruto thought to himself before turning his attention back to his own work. Something about his chakra diagram didn't look right so he added some more loops to it just for effect.

Finally the proctor called time. "Pencils down. It is time for the last question. Once I present it to you, you are committed to answering it. Walking out will then be considered an incorrect answer. Would anyone like to leave now?"

Team members all around the room looked at each other nervously. One squad of very young genins stood and filed silently out. Naruto counted only eight squads left from the original fifteen, not counting his own.

"Anyone else?" The proctor asked. "No? Very well. The final question is this: What is the most important key to survival as a ninja? You have ten minutes."

Naruto blinked. That wasn't the sort of question he had been expecting. He thought back to all his missions over the years, all the fights he had been in. 'Being prepared is important...but it is possible to survive without supplies...' He pondered. 'Being strong is...no, because we beat enemies that were much stronger than we were sometimes.'

His mind wandered to his very first day as a genin, meeting Kakashi-sensei and taking his test, Sasuke sharing his lunch because he didn't want Naruto to be weak later when the team might need him, Kakashi popping up to announce they had passed. Blue eyes lit up in excitement and he hastily scribbled his answer on the blank lines provided for question ten.

The orange clad ninja sat back in his chair and eyed the clock. Four minutes left. Then he would find out if his squad had made it through the first test.

'And I'll know if my career as a ninja is over.' He thought nervously, remembering Tsunade's ultimatum.

The seconds ticked by. Naruto watched as his fellow hopefuls finished the exam. Some were writing rapidly, while others seemed to still be thinking. The latter group included Matsuri. A few, including Manabu, were finished.

With only a minute to go, Matsuri finally scribbled a few words and sat back, glancing around nervously to see who else was finished.

"Time." The chunins swiftly collected the tests and returned them to the proctor. The scarred ninja examined the first test for a few seconds. "If you fail, you are to exit at once. Goru Abara, Fail. Manabu Akado, Pass."

Naruto breathed a small sigh of relief. One down, two to go. The proctor continued to pronounce the results in a firm voice. Nine more people passed before he reached Matsuri.

"Matsuri of Sunagakure, Pass."

"Yes!" The young Suna ninja clapped her hands over her mouth in embarrassment at her outburst, blushing crimson but still managing to look pleased.

Naruto shot her a thumbs-up as her eyes passed over him. She replied with a grateful smile before turning her attention back to the proctor.

'Last one. Hope I don't blow this for all of us.' The jinchuriki broke out in a sweat as the proctor drew ever closer to his exam. A little over half of the group had passed the final question. Three squads had been disqualified, one had been extremely unlucky and all three members had failed.

Finally, the proctor reached his exam. The scarred face frowned, one eyebrow lifted in confusion as he scanned the unusual answers Naruto had penned for the first nine questions. Then he reached the final answer. One word: Teamwork. "Naruto Uzumaki, Pass."

"YES!" The blonde teen launched out of his seat and pumped his fist in the air. "We did it!" He grinned madly at his squad mates.

"The second stage of the exam will begin tomorrow at dawn." The proctor announced. "Dismissed!"

* * *

Naruto tried to go to bed early that night but his mind wouldn't shut down. He tossed and turned, unable to relax. What if he still wasn't good enough to pass the exam. He had made it so far the last time and still didn't make chunin.

Gaara's arrival interrupted his anxious musings. The redhead slid the window closed and crawled under the light blanket, curling up and snuggling into the yellow haired ninja's arms.

"You'll do fine. Go to sleep." She murmured with a small smirk, tucking her head under his chin.

Naruto grinned, wondering how she knew what he was thinking. "Thanks." He whispered back.

Breathing in the scent of the soft crimson strands, the leaf ninja closed his eyes and felt a sense of calm wash over him. 'Of course he would pass. He couldn't disappoint Gaara.'

* * *

Silently, a shadow flitted across the rooftops of Konoha. The figure slipped stealthily in through a window and padded across the darkened living room of the small apartment. Deftly avoiding the traps and alarms that were set to deter intruders, the assassin crept into the room where his target lay under a mountain of blankets.

'Of course, it must seem cold here at night after spending most of your life in the desert sun.' He reasoned as he approached.

A long thin blade appeared in his hand from a hidden sheathe. The tip glistened with poison in the faint moonlight filtering in through the curtains. The assassin raised the blade and brought it down on the sleeping form.

Only to realize his mistake a moment too late as the knife was ensnared in a sucking pile of sand where the occupant should have been. The would be assassin tried to jerk his hand back as the knife was swallowed up but the sand crept around his wrist as well and held him fast.

* * *

Gaara jerked awake, startling Naruto who was immediately alert upon seeing her expression.

"Someone just tried to kill me." The redhead said flatly, rising from the narrow bed and flitting out the window in a blur.

Naruto followed without question, correctly assuming the sand ninja had been alerted by some trap she had set.

The pair crossed the village via the rooftops, slowing only when they reached the building Gaara lived in. Silent hand signals passed between them and Naruto split off, scaling quickly down the side of the building to block escape via the window.

Meanwhile the redhead entered through the front door. She could see a couple of the traps in the living room had been expertly disarmed. She picked her way across the room easily, purposefully triggering a signal that would wake her sister if the blonde hadn't been incapacitated by the intruder. That thought made a cold knot of fear settle in her stomach and a flicker of fury bubble up in her mind.

The sand wielder slipped into the hallway, relieved to see Temari exiting her room with her close quarters fans in her hands. Gaara signaled the pigtailed blonde and the sisters moved toward the redhead's room with long practiced cooperation.

They took positions on either side of the doorway. With a tendril of sand pulled from a vase at the end of the hall, the younger sibling pushed open her door and flipped on the light. A kunai thudded into the wall across from the door. Crashing sounds from inside the room indicated Naruto's arrival had gone as planned and the Suna ninjas entered the room to find that the orange clad jinchuriki, all fifteen of him, had the assassin well in hand...at least the hand not caught in Gaara's sand trap.

The redhead might have found the sight amusing if she hadn't been so furious. "Who are you?" She demanded harshly.

"You should've stayed dead." The assassin snarled back, before he bit down on something. "This is just the beginning."

Within seconds he began to convulse and his eyes rolled back in his head. A trickle of blood ran from his nose and he would have collapsed had Naruto not held him upright.

The blonde dismissed his shadow clones and lowered the man to the floor with a grim expression. "He's dead."

Gaara looked at Temari and nodded, signaling her eldest sibling to bring in the rest of the Suna ninjas.

The pigtailed blonde darted away in a blur, leaving Gaara and Naruto alone with the body of the dead ninja.

"The Hokage will need to be notified." The redhead said flatly.

"I know, but I'm not leaving you until we're sure he was working alone." The blonde replied, eying her carefully. Gaara's eyes were riveted on the corpse, her face a carefully blank mask. Only her clenched fists gave any indication of her inner struggle. After a few moments he slowly approached the motionless young woman. "You can let it show you know, if you want to...I mean...if I were you, I'd be really pissed right now."

Gaara blinked, taking her eyes off of the body and locking them on Naruto instead. "I stopped being angry about people trying to kill me years ago. I got tired of being angry all the time." She shrugged, relaxing her tense muscles just slightly. "What bothers me is how close he got...He could have...What if he had tried to take out Temari first? He made it past all our regular wards and seals."

"So he was pretty good then." Naruto glanced back at the limp form before hastily looking away. "Thankfully just not good enough."

"You don't understand." The ex-jinchuriki shook her head vehemently. "Only a sand ninja would know how to avoid some of those traps."

"Oh..." Blue eyes widened in alarm. "So that guy...was from Sunagakure?" He asked in disbelief.

"It is a strong possibility." Gaara nodded. "He may be a rogue...I hope so." She grimaced. "Otherwise..."

"Otherwise, it means someone on the council wants you dead." Temari said bluntly as she returned with Kankuro in tow. "The others are combing the city for signs that our visitor wasn't alone."

Kankuro looked Gaara over before silently moving on, satisfied that his little sister was in good health. He started towards the body to examine it but stopped short as he spotted Naruto. "Hey, how'd the leaf get here so fast?" He asked in puzzlement.

Temari cringed and Gaara paled slightly. The leaf ninja in question felt a bead of sweat roll down his temple. Kankuro did not know about Gaara's sleeping arrangements.

Gaara stepped up and laid a hand on her elder brother's arm to get his attention, and to restrain him if what she had to tell him went over as badly as she feared it would. "He came with me when I felt the sand trap in my bed trigger. We were together when the attack occurred." She hesitated but decided full disclosure would be easier in the long run. "I've been sleeping with Naruto at his apartment."

"You've what?!" The puppetmaster shouted. "I thought we had taught you better! What were you thinking? I'll kill him..." He tried to turn towards the distinctly uncomfortable looking jinchuriki but Gaara's grip had turned to steel and he couldn't pull away without hurting either her or himself.

"We're just sleeping, Kankuro." The redhead told him with almost complete honesty, he didn't need to hear about their experiment with French kissing. She frowned, trying to find the best way to explain the situation. "I didn't intend to stay there the first time, I've been having a lot of trouble sleeping and I went to Naruto to talk. After we talked for a while, I fell asleep...and I slept better than I have in my entire life. Naruto's presence just...soothes me, I guess. So I kept going back...every night since." She finished the unusually long and difficult explanation and fell silent, looking at her brother with aqua eyes that pleaded for him to understand.

Kankuro frowned. "It has to stop, Gaara. If anyone from home finds out...they'll never believe you. You'll be an outcast again at best."

"I know...but I need this right now. We just have to make sure no one else finds out."

"But..."

"No."

The masked shinobi sighed. "Sheesh...you don't know how to make anything easy for me, do you Sis?"

Gaara's expression lightened as she recognized her brother's way of accepting the situation. "You'd be bored. Now, about him?" She pointed at the dead assassin and the group got back to the business at hand.

Kankuro knelt beside the dead ninja and cautiously examined the corpse. "He's definitely no amateur." The puppetmaster used Crow to move the body and rifle through the attacker's belongings. "Half these weapons are coated with scorpion venom and a couple have something else on them that I can't identify just yet. It will need to be tested, but I'm fairly certain it's some kind of poison." He continued to report as he systematically had Crow removing and setting aside the various weapons and other dangerous items. "The guy had a poison capsule in his mouth in case of capture, which he obviously broke. Potent stuff from the look of him. He also had a couple of explosive booby-traps on his personal gear...most likely intended to destroy his remains or possibly finish the job for him if he died without success. Lucky for us, I'm damn paranoid and was able to disable them without setting them off."

"None of that tells us who he was, or who sent him." Temari glared at the dead man in disgust. "I'd really like to know how he knew just which room was Gaara's and how he made it past all the traps without waking me."

Kankuro carefully removed the dead man's mask so they could see the assassin's face.

"Hey..." Naruto blinked in shock. "I know him, he was one of the chunin hopefuls at the test today. He failed."

"That explains why he attacked without doing enough surveillance to find out I wasn't here." Gaara said flatly.

"Yeah, all failed applicants have to leave Konoha by tomorrow. The Crybaby thought it would be a good idea to reduce the number of foreign ninjas in the village as the exam moves into the more dangerous stages." Temari explained at Naruto's blank look.

"Oh, that makes sense...but why would they send a genin to assassinate Gaara?" Naruto's eyebrows furrowed as he attempted to puzzle everything out. "They had to know this would fail, right?"

"It's almost insulting when you think about it." Temari muttered, eying the very young, very dead wannabe assassin sourly.

"Perhaps it was intended to be." Another voice pointed out dryly, before Kakashi slipped out of the shadows of the hallway to join them. "Or perhaps it was some sort of test run, to gauge what sort of defenses you have in place for the exiled Kazekage."

Seeing four pairs of eyes suddenly on him with a mixture of confusion and suspicion, Kakashi smiled sheepishly with his visible eye. "I guess the esteemed Hokage didn't mention that this apartment building also houses a number of leaf jonin, including myself." He bowed slightly. "Consider me a bit of back up security, for just such an occasion as this. I have already notified the Hokage about the situation and patrols throughout the village are being doubled as we speak."

Kankuro nodded in approval of the increased security. "Gaara needs someplace secure to stay for the night, until we figure out how this guy got in without triggering the traps."

"She can stay with me." Naruto volunteered, just a bit too quickly if the leaf jonin's raised eyebrow was any indication. "I mean, uh...I can sleep on the couch...or uh..."

Kankuro opened his mouth, a protest on the tip of his tongue.

Gaara cut him off before he could make a sound. "Thank you, Naruto. I would be honored to accept you hospitality." She nodded. "We should go now." She grabbed his hand and darted out the window with the blonde in tow.

Kakashi watched them go, a smirk playing behind his mask. "So...what was that about?" He asked dryly, turning to the elder sand siblings.

Temari shrugged nervously. "Gaara has never been much for crowds."

"Yeah." Kankuro was quick to agree, but he made plans to look in on his sister and her...boyfriend, he mentally cringed at the term, after they finished dealing with the assassin.

* * *

"Gaara?" Naruto whispered once they settled back into his narrow bed.

"Hm?" The redhead's response was muffled against his chest.

"I need this too." He mumbled sleepily.

Aqua colored eyes snapped open as Gaara recalled saying those words to her brother earlier. She pushed herself up on one elbow, intending to ask the jinchuriki what he meant by that, but the blonde had drifted off.

A small smile lifted the corner of her lips as she watched him sleep. His mouth hung open and small snores periodically rumbled from him. She found the fact that he slept so easily in her presence to be oddly satisfying. She leaned in and kissed him softly on the cheek.

"Thanks." She whispered, not entirely sure what the word was for but feeling it needed to be said.

Gaara settled back into what had quickly become her favorite sleeping position, curled into Naruto's chest with his chin on top of her head and his arm draped over her, and soon joined the blonde in sleep.

To be continued...

Author's Note: Alright people. The next chapter is in the works and I hope to finish it in the next week or so. Please review!


	9. Chapter 9: Scrolls and Skirmishes

Author's Note: Here you go! ^_^ The second phase of the chunin exams has begun!

Sandstorms and Falling Leaves

Chapter 9: Scrolls and Skirmishes

Naruto yawned and rubbed his eyes. The incident in the night had resulted in a restless sleep for Gaara, not even his presence had been able to quell all the nightmares. Still, the redhead had gone back to sleep quickly enough each time she thrashed herself awake. The blonde only wished he had been able to do the same, but his mind was overwhelmed, between the upcoming portion of the chunin exam and the fact that someone had just tried to kill his...Gaara. He wasn't sure at first, why the assassination attempt bothered him so much. Such things came with being a ninja, especially one as high profile as the Kazekage.

It was only after the problem had rolled around in his tousled blonde head for a few hours that he realized what bothered him wasn't that the attempt had happened, it was how close it had come to succeeding.

'If the assassin had had a bit more time for reconnaissance...' Naruto shuddered at the idea, pushing it away.

"Morning." Gaara's voice intruded as Naruto found his thoughts wandering back into unproductive worry once more.

"Yeah." He answered absently. "Guess I should get ready, ne?"

A nod and a chaste kiss on his cheek were all the answer he got as the redhead extricated herself from the tangle of sheets. Gaara put on her coat but hesitated, hovering and looking everywhere but at the blonde as he rummaged through drawers for clean clothes for the day. Finally, he noticed her nervousness.

"You okay?" He asked, eying her curiously.

"Yes." The sand ninja seemed to steel herself before she dug into her pocket and produced a tiny vial strung on a leather cord. "Here." She said simply, holding it out to the leaf genin. "For luck."

Naruto took the vial and held it up to the light. "Sand?"

Gaara nodded. "From home..." She seemed reluctant to continue but she took the vial from him and removed the cork, grabbing the canteen he had filled the night before. She trickled a few drops of water into the opening and, a moment later, half a dozen tiny red flowers bloomed from the vial like a miniature vase. She handed it to him along with the cork as she returned the canteen to it's place among his gear.

Naruto's eyes lit up at the sight of the familiar blossoms. "Sand flowers." He mumbled. "Thanks Gaara. They're just as pretty as I remember." The tiny flowers were already wilting, even without the sun shining on them. He waited until they had crumbled before closing the container and hanging the cord around his neck. "This way I'll have a part of you with me the whole time, ne?"

He wrapped his arms around the petite redhead and found the embrace returned with strength that would have probably broken a rib or two if he hadn't been ninja trained. Before either could say anything else, Gaara slipped from his arms and vanished out the window into the slowly waking village.

"Be careful." Naruto's words were just a few moments too late for the sand ninja to hear, but he knew they were probably unnecessary. Gaara could take care of herself. She'd been doing it for years. 'And she has a family almost as scary as she is, if she needs backup.' He thought with a smirk.

The blonde grinned and ran his fingers over the cool glass vial resting against his chest alongside Tsunade's necklace.

"Yosh! Time to get ready!" He crowed to himself. He had people counting on him today, and he wasn't about to disappoint them by being late.

* * *

The fenced in section of forest reserved for this stage of the exam was much like Naruto remembered it, but he knew that new obstacles and diversions were routinely added each time. Still, he had a general idea of how to progress through the area and that could prove very valuable to his team.

The five squads that had passed the first test were soon assembled and Ino stepped forward, having been chosen to proctor this section of the exam.

"Listen closely. In these woods are eight shrines. In each shrine is a single scroll. The objective is for each squad to acquire two scrolls and make it to the building in the center of the area. For those of you who can't do simple math, that means at least one squad WILL NOT PASS. You have three days to accomplish this mission." She placed her hands on her hips and glared at them all. "If you open the scrolls before arriving at the mission destination, you will be disqualified. If you arrive with less than two scrolls, you will be disqualified. If you kill anyone, you will be disqualified. If you try to leave the testing area without completing your mission, you will be disqualified. Do I make myself clear?"

Most of the genins nodded quickly enough, though a couple of people looked frighteningly disappointed about the new 'no killing the opposition' rule.

"Okay. You are to disperse to your assigned gates and wait for them to open. Wouldn't want to have a free for all as soon as you start, ne?"

Naruto looked at his teammates and grinned. "Let's go." He crowed excitedly, darting off towards the gate Ino pointed them to.

Manabu and Matsuri followed him with only slightly less enthusiasm.

They spotted the first shrine almost immediately. It was just a little hut really, nothing fancy.

"Alright! I'll get it!" Naruto started forward.

"Wait! It could be booby trapped." Matsuri grabbed at his arm to hold him back.

"Oh. Yeah, I hadn't thought of that." The leaf ninja fidgeted sheepishly as Matsuri checked the wooden building for traps before she suggested using a shadow clone to open the small door and reach in for the scroll.

A moment later the clone slumped and vanished as a dart shot out and dosed it with enough sedative to knock a ninja out for hours. Naruto quickly sent in another clone and was pleased when that one was able to grab the scroll off the stand in the center of the gloomy little shack. A flash was all the warning they got and Naruto's clone barely managed to toss the scroll out through the open door before the shack exploded.

Choking smoke and large chunks of the building raining down on them made Naruto miss catching the scroll his double had tossed his way. There were a few frantic moments while he searched for it on the ground.

"Got it!" He announced happily, holding it up for Matsuri and Manabu to see. He could just make them out through the haze.

"Great. Let's get away from here before someone comes to investigate that noise." Manabu suggested, still coughing a little.

"Too late." A new voice cut in. "Hand over the scroll."

The smoke was clearing slowly, and Naruto realized they weren't alone in the little clearing. One of the rival squads had found them. Their hitae-ate bore the symbol of the village hidden in the mists.

"No." He said sharply. "Get you own."

"This is easier, Leaf." The speaker laughed and charged at him, a kunai in his hand.

Naruto easily dodged the feeble attack, knowing his opponent was gauging his strength. "We'll see about that." He tucked the scroll into an inner pocket of his jacket and made some lightning fast hand signs. "Shadow clone jutsu." Where there had been one Naruto, now there were a dozen.

Matsuri performed a similar jutsu, creating half a dozen ordinary image clones of herself, just to add to the chaos they were creating.

The mist ninjas quickly formed a defensive triangle, guarding each others' backs as they tried to sort out which enemies were the real ones. One of them poured out a canteen of water and formed it into a sort of whip, lashing at the many Narutos, but each swipe produced only puffs of smoke as Naruto let the clones fail. Meanwhile, Naruto and his squad were able to slip away while the clones had the enemy pinned down and surrounded.

They ran through the woods, moving stealthily but trying to put as much distance between themselves and the rival squad as they could. Finally, Naruto slowed to a walk.

He had spotted a small cave, beneath the roots of a massive tree, and the three of them crawled into it to rest and reconnoiter. It was just large enough for them to sit comfortably with a small amount of personal space.

"So we've got one scroll. Now we either have to find another shrine and take our chances with the traps, or try to find another squad and take a scroll from them." Naruto laid out the options so they could decide.

"If we want to find a shrine, we need to move fast before the others take the scrolls out of all of them." Matsuri pointed out.

"On the other hand, if we want to try to get one from an opposing squad, we should save our strength for now and attempt something tonight while we might have a better chance of surprising them while they sleep." Manabu added thoughtfully. "Also, waiting will make it more likely that any team we target will have at least one scroll already."

"Yeah...so what do we want to try?" Naruto wondered out loud.

"Well...I think..." Matsuri trailed off, squinting in the dim light filtering into their temporary hiding place. "Naruto, you're bleeding." She pointed out.

"I am?" The yellow haired genin blinked and only then registered an annoying stinging in his leg. A shard of wood about half an inch wide and a couple of inches long had imbedded itself into his thigh. "Hn."

"Must have happened in the explosion." Manabu frowned, digging through his pouches for a bandage and a small bottle of antiseptic.

Naruto gritted his teeth and pulled the offending splinter from his leg, grimacing as previously adrenalin-numbed nerves made their displeasure known. The antiseptic liquid burned like acid in the wound a moment later and then Manabu was efficiently wrapping bandages around the blonde's thigh.

A distant blast resounded across the forest arena, letting them know at least one other scroll had been found.

The elder genin sat back to inspect his handiwork. "I'm no mednin, but that should hold up well enough. It isn't too deep and you can obviously still run on it since you made it this far."

Naruto nodded. "It'll be fine. I've had worse."

"I think we should wait." Matsuri spoke up quietly. "Rest here until nightfall and then try to find either a squad we can steal a scroll from or an untouched shrine. Either way we'll be safer traveling at night because most of our enemies will likely be camped by then."

Naruto nodded. It did sound like a good plan. "If we keep track of how many explosions we hear, it'll give us a rough idea of how many scrolls have been found...at least how many have been found by people who don't catch the traps."

"We should conceal the opening to this cave if we are going to stay here that long." Manabu spoke up, crawling to the entrance and peering out cautiously. "I'll be right back with some camouflage." He announced brightly as he slipped silently from the small space.

The older ninja returned with an armful of fern fronds, some dead branches, and a pile of pine straw. He began arranging the camouflage to conceal the opening to the small cave, crawling inside once he had it mostly covered and then filling in the hole he had used to enter.

"That's the best I can do. As long as no one is looking too hard for us, it should be good enough." Manabu shrugged. "I thought it best to have it done quickly, rather than perfectly. Less chance of being spotted coming and going."

Matsuri nodded. "We should rest. I'll take the first watch."

Though it was early in the day, Naruto found himself very tired as the adrenalin from the morning's activities wore off and the previous night's lack of anything resembling real rest caught up to him. He leaned back against the dirt wall and stretched his legs out in front of him, closing his eyes. He was asleep in minutes.

"Naruto-kun." Manabu's voice brought the jinchuriki out of a deep sleep. "It's your watch. We have about three hours before sun down. So far nobody's paid any attention to us. We've heard three more shrines blow up, so that makes at least five scrolls found."

"Okay. I'm up." The blonde sat up and stretched, rubbing his leg absently.

The wound was tender but not unbearably sore. The abused muscles had stiffened while he slept but he figured they would loosen up once he got moving again.

Matsuri was asleep, curled in a ball with her head on her knees. Manabu settled down quickly, adopting a meditative pose that really didn't look comfortable to Naruto but he let it go.

'To each their own.' He sat back to listen to the forest around them for signs of trouble. It wasn't like he could watch much with the cave entrance covered but they'd sacrificed that in favor of better concealment from their enemies. 'A ninja is most effective when he remains unseen.' Something a teacher at the academy once told him, probably Iruka-sensei since he was about the only one Naruto had really listened to.

The hyperactive blonde found his mind wandering as he waited for the tell tale signs of night to set in around them. 'I wonder what Gaara is doing right now.'

* * *

Gaara arrived at her apartment just before dawn. The assassin's corpse had been cleared away and her siblings were sitting at the kitchen table, pouring over diagrams and plans for increased security.

Both of them glanced up as she entered and the redhead offered them a nod in greeting before heading to her room to get clothes so she could shower and get ready to face the day. She had the feeling that she wouldn't be getting much time alone until they were sure the threat of attack had passed, so she savored a few extra minutes under the warm spray and then dressed leisurely before returning to the apartment's living area to face her family.

"What were you going to do today, Sis?" Temari asked tiredly.

"Training with Hinata this morning."

"You mind having company?"

"I assumed as much, after last night." Gaara shrugged.

"Smart girl." The wind user grinned. "Do you have time to make something for breakfast before we go?"

"Sure."

The redhead soon had rice-filled omelets sitting in front of each of her siblings. Hinata had taught her to make the dish a few days earlier and Gaara wasn't certain she'd done it exactly right. She sat down with her own plate, pouring ketchup over her eggs as she surreptitiously watched Temari and Kankuro for their reactions to her cooking.

"Wow!" Kankuro grinned as he chewed his first bite. "You're getting good at this, Gaara. Guess living with Temari you had to learn to cook for self-preservation."

"Shut it twerp. At least I can cook rice without burning it."

"Yeah, well at least I never set the kitchen on fire!" Her brother shot back.

"Oh yeah?! Well..."

Gaara tuned the bickering out, letting the normalcy of Temari and Kankuro picking on each other soothe her nerves.

'Listening to them argue makes me feel safe.' She mused. 'How messed up is that...' Still, she couldn't stifle a smirk that crept onto her face. She hid the telltale sign of amusement by taking a big bite of her breakfast, watching the argument like a tennis match.

Finally, the combative pair huffed and simultaneously turned their attention to their cooling meals. As far as the redhead could tell, both parties had been insulted about equally. After a few minutes they shook off the lingering anger, and by the time breakfast was finished and Kankuro had washed the few dishes, the pair was back to plotting new security measures like nothing ever happened.

"Time to go." Gaara pointed out flatly.

"Sure, Sis." Temari nodded. "Just let me grab my other fan."

The blonde was back in seconds, her enormous war fan slung across her back. She headed straight for the door without further discussion. The redhead started to follow her when Kankuro reached out a hand to stop her.

"Gaara...be careful. Okay?" He said, the words slightly strained as if he had seriously considered holding them in.

"Always." She assured him with a nod, shrugging off his hand so she could follow their eldest sibling from the apartment.

* * *

Hinata was waiting in the usual place with Shino. The pair had their heads together, deep in discussion about something. They sprang apart as the Suna ninjas approached.

Gaara might have found their behavior suspicious, except for the fact that the blue haired girl turned crimson and stammered uncontrollably in her greeting.

"G-Gaara. I-I w-wasn't sure you'd b-be c-coming today." Violet eyes flicked towards the insect user a few times as the Hyuuga girl spoke.

"Did we interrupt something?" Temari smirked, one eyebrow raised at the guilty-looking pair.

This only served to render the already flustered girl completely unable to speak a full word.

"Temari." There was a hint of a command in Gaara's tone. It wasn't a threat really, especially considering the redhead still wasn't up to a fraction of her old strength, but old habits died hard and Temari backed down with a huff.

Shino stood back, outwardly impassive. "Hinata and I were discussing a personal matter." He said simply.

"Uh huh..." The blonde had to bite her tongue as her little sister glared daggers at her. "So...right, training. Anything I can help with?" She asked with a grin.

Hinata seemed to find her voice. "Not really, Temari-san." She squeaked out sheepishly.

"Okay then. Come on Bug Boy." She walked over and threw her arm around Shino's shoulders companionably as she spoke, to take the sting out of the insulting nickname. "You and I can train on the other side of the field. I wonder how your critters stand up in a high wind..."

The Aburame heir tensed at the contact but allowed himself to be drawn away from his teammate. The blue haired girl fidgeted nervously until she was certain he was out of earshot.

"Shinokunaskedmeout." She mumbled.

"What?" Gaara raised an eyebrow and cocked her head to the side, trying to decipher the garbled sentence.

"Shino-kun...he asked me on a date." The girl blushed even darker as she forced herself to speak up.

"Oh." Gaara wasn't sure how to respond. Her entire frame of reference for dating consisted of her sister's dysfunctional relationship with Shikamaru and the total of two dates she had managed with Naruto. "Is that good?"

"I'm n-not sure...I mean...maybe...y-yes?" Hinata cast furtive glances at the insect user as she seemed to roll the idea around in her head. "I like Shino...it's just...I never thought about him as more than a f-friend before."

"Ah, I see." Gaara wasn't actually certain she did but it seemed like a good noncommittal response.

"What if it doesn't work out?"

Gaara shrugged. "You'll go back to being teammates...friends. Neither of you seem to be the type to hold a grudge."

"Oh...I guess not." Hinata toyed with the end of her ponytail thoughtfully. "I think I'm going to say yes." She finally whispered, more to herself than the redhead in front of her.

Gaara had no response to that so she simply patted the other girl awkwardly on the arm before turning the conversation towards chakra and jutsus and away from the minefield that was teenage life.

To Be Continued...

* * *

Author's Note: Okay folks, next chapter will conclude this segment of the chunin exams. Will our international squad succeed? How will they get that second scroll? Will there be a further attempt on Gaara's life? Find out...as soon as I get five reviews. Yes, I'm holding the chapter hostage. Mwahahaha! I have the next five chapters all ready to go up (except for a bit of proofreading), but I'm ransoming them for five reviews per chapter. If I don't get the ransom I'll put the next chapter up on Friday.


	10. Chapter Ten: Long Night

Author's Note: That was fast! lol. You all got that ransom together in record time. Thanks for all the great reviews. Hmm...I am somewhat concerned that I am making Gaara too OOC (mostly with how much I have her talking and her expression of feelings). That is certainly not my intention, though I do want to explore an increased range of emotion with her since she can finally let herself feel without danger of losing control to Shukaku. Please let me know if you feel that I'm taking her too far from the taciturn, awkward redhead we all know and love...or if you feel I'm making it seem too easy for her to change or something. I also welcome ideas for things you might like to see in this story. I won't guarantee I'll use them but two years is a long time and I only have some of it really planned out. Thanks for reading! Please Review.

Oh and for the record, I did not make Manabu Akado up. He was taking the chunin exam when Naruto took it the first time. lol. I just built him a personality.

Sandstorms and Falling Leaves

Chapter Ten: Long Night

Naruto woke his teammates just after sunset and the three genins set out through the treetops. Their passage was silent, not even a rustle to betray their presence. Matsuri was on point, using her sensory jutsu to search out their target. Manabu followed, mentally mapping the terrain. Naruto brought up the rear, on alert for enemies attempting the same sort of ambush they had planned.

They found the first pile of smoldering rubble about half an hour after they set out. The scroll was nowhere to be seen so they pressed on. The first camp was less than ten minutes from the destroyed shrine and the three took up surveillance positions.

Naruto watched the squad below, keeping his distance to avoid detection. By their markings, they were from the village hidden in the stone. Two men and one woman. One man was already asleep, the woman was eating a ration of dried meat while the second man remained alert, watching the darkness around them for any sign of trouble.

"So do you think the others are having better luck?" The woman eating asked around a mouthful of jerky.

"I wouldn't know." The sentry replied tiredly. "I can't imagine anyone having worse. I still can't believe we lost two scrolls in one day."

Naruto frowned. It didn't seem like they'd be getting anything useful from the Stone ninjas. He faded back into the forest and circled around to rejoin Matsuri and Manabu. Silent hand signals relayed what he'd heard and the trio moved on, looking for another source for the scroll they needed.

* * *

By midnight Naruto could feel his heartbeat throbbing in his injured leg with every step and they were no closer to finding a scroll.

Matsuri finally called him to a halt. "Naruto...you're sweating."

"Am I? Must be the heat." The blonde tried to brush the girl's concern off, inwardly cursing how observant the young Suna ninja was proving to be. 'Well she'd have to be...she reads Gaara like a freaking book.'

"Do you think that wound is infected?" Manabu asked hesitantly.

"No...well, maybe. I don't know." Naruto laid a hand against his leg, feeling heat radiating from the wound even through his pants and the bandages. "Probably." He admitted finally, as his hand came away sticky with blood.

"Maybe we should rest. Clean the wound again." Matsuri suggested with a grim expression.

"Yeah, okay." The blonde agreed sourly. "But we are not quitting. Understood?" His blue eyes were like chips of steel in the moonlight.

His teammates looked at each other but after a tense moment they nodded. Manabu then dug out his first aid supplies again and began tending the wound while Matsuri stood watch.

Naruto hissed in pain as the bandage was pulled away from the seeping red gash. "Definitely infected." He observed through clenched teeth.

"And still bleeding." The older man frowned grimly, they all knew that wasn't a good sign.

Manabu cleaned the wound again, being as thorough as he could be with his small first aid kit. Naruto gritted his teeth through the whole process, not wanting to give away their position by letting out the groan that was trying to rip its way free from his throat. Alcohol hurt worse than being stabbed in the first place, and the infection made the wound much more tender than it should have been.

"Done." The older ninja announced after what seemed like an eternity to the jinchuriki.

Naruto released the breath he hadn't been aware of holding and examined the newly redressed wound, pushing himself to his feet and gingerly putting his weight on the injured limb. The pain was bearable and he nodded his thanks.

"I think we need a new plan." Matsuri spoke up. "This isn't working and running around all night is just gonna exhaust us and make us more vulnerable to attack."

Naruto could tell she purposefully didn't mention that it was also aggravating his injury. "Well, we could head for the center. If we catch people as they are heading to turn in their scrolls..."

"Then we'll know they most likely have two already." Manabu nodded. "It's a smart plan."

"Yeah..." Naruto agreed grudgingly. Someone had tried to do the same to his squad in the last chunin exam he'd taken part in. He had been disgusted by the ambushing squad's laziness. Still, he wasn't thirteen anymore and life had taught him some hard lessons. You did what had to be done sometimes.

Without another word, the mismatched little group set off towards the building that was the end goal of the challenge. The blonde felt like someone was holding a blowtorch to his leg but he said nothing.

'I have to pass. I'm gonna be Hokage someday. Tsunade-baachan is counting on me. Gaara believes in me. I can't let them down.' His hand unconsciously grasped at the two pendants tucked under his jacket.

* * *

Gaara sat in her room, looking out the window as night fell over the village. She wondered what Naruto was doing. She wasn't sure what the challenge this year entailed, Temari hadn't been privy to that side of the planning.

She had hoped, in a small selfish part of her mind, that the blonde might pass quickly and be home by now. She turned from the view and eyed her bed warily. She hadn't tried sleeping alone since the second night she'd spent with the blonde leaf ninja and she really wasn't looking forward to it.

"You could come sleep with me, you know?" Her sister's voice cut through the room suddenly, but the redhead didn't show any sign of being startled.

"No." She said simply, suppressing the urge to sigh as she sat down on the edge of her bed.

Temari seemed to seriously consider pressing the offer but in the end she let it go with a shrug. "Okay then. Suit yourself. Just don't try to leave the apartment tonight. Some of Kankuro's new traps are a little...experimental." The blonde shook her head with an odd fondness at the mention of their brother.

"I'll be here in the morning." The redhead replied evenly.

"Night Sis."

"Night Temari."

The older girl retreated to her own room and Gaara laid down, letting out the sigh she hadn't let her sister hear. She knew she should at least try to sleep. She pulled a tendril of sand from the pile she kept under her bed and used it to flick off the lights before closing her eyes.

It took a little while for the tense young woman to relax enough to let sleep claim her.

* * *

Gaara blinked blearily. She tried to move but found herself bound hand and foot, kneeling on a stone floor. Through the darkness shadowy figures in black huddled over something a few yards in front of her. She caught a glimpse of the red cloud emblazoned on their coats and her heart lodged in her throat.

Voices reached her then, mumbled so that she could only catch snatches of the conversation. '...last one...put up a hell of fight...caught him alone...he won't be missed for days...'

Gaara struggled against her restraints. They were doing it again. She couldn't let that happen.

Then the figures stepped away from the prone and bloodied form on their altar and the redhead's thrashing doubled in intensity.

"Naruto!" She shouted. "No! Stop! Wake up Naruto!"

The chanting began, thrumming through the air like something alive. The blue light enveloped the unconscious leaf ninja and lifted him into the air. She watched in horror as his eyes popped open and an inhuman scream ripped from his throat.

"Naruto! NOOOOO!"

* * *

"NOO!" Gaara thrashed free of her blanket with a scream, searching her surroundings with wide frantic eyes. Her room remained as innocuous as it had been when she'd closed her eyes forty minutes earlier.

She could feel her hands shaking and her heart pounded in her ears. She tried to reassure herself that it had only been a nightmare but it had been so vivid.

'They always are.' She thought grimly, standing from her bed and resigning herself to a long night. 'Not the first time I've stayed awake all night. Probably won't be the last.'

"You okay Sis?" Temari stood in the doorway, looking around for any sign of the trouble that had her sister awake at near midnight.

"Nightmare." Gaara offered in explanation.

"Ah, you want to change your mind about my offer?"

"No. I'm fine. Go to sleep." The redhead turned on her light and then moved over to her desk. She had some correspondence to catch up on.

"Okay." The blonde started to turn away but paused. "Gaara...I'm here okay? Nothing is gonna hurt you while I'm here."

"I know." The younger girl replied, giving her sister a look that somehow said all the things they rarely managed to put into words.

Temari nodded and grinned. "Okay then. Night."

Gaara nodded and turned her attention back to her desk. She tried to focus on the letter from Baki she was replying to but images from the dream kept flashing in her mind. The blood running from Naruto's nose and ears, the tattered orange jacket, the way his arm had hung crooked as the light lifted him. He'd just looked so...broken, even before the worst started.

'It was easier when I only worried about people hurting _me_.' She thought with a scowl. 'Of course, I was miserable, homicidal, sociopathic...insane...' She cut off the line of self-recrimination. It was never productive. She couldn't change who she had been, only who she was now, who she would become. 'And I have precious people who I will protect at all costs.'

She laid her head on her arms on the desktop, really wishing Naruto was there with her. She wanted to see him, see that he was safe, to banish the final traces of fear from her mind.

"Come back to me soon, Naruto." She mumbled.

* * *

Naruto was relieved when they spotted the imposing structure at the center of the arena. Blood loss was making him feel slightly tired and he could feel the warm liquid still running down his leg in slow sticky trails from the throbbing, burning gash. They had to get their second scroll fast.

Dawn was bathing the area in soft gray light as they approached. There was a clear area around the building that would make it easy to spot any squad attempting to reach it with their scrolls. It was a prime place for an ambush.

Unfortunately, they weren't the only ones with that idea. Naruto hurriedly signaled the others to stop as he spotted some suspicious puddles near the edge of the trees. 'It hasn't rained in days.' He'd seen that trick before, on team seven's first big mission.

The group fell back to strategize.

"We have to take them out now...otherwise we'll get in each others' way when it comes time for the real ambush." Matsuri insisted.

"Yeah, I know. How do we want to play it?" The blonde asked, careful to keep his bad leg away from the observant girl.

"I could use my probability jutsu." Manabu suggested. "That is...if we can lure them out in the open where they'd be susceptible to it."

Naruto grinned with a strength he didn't entirely feel and in a moment there were several more of the orange clad ninja. "Leave that to us." They said confidently.

Naruto sent one shadow clone into the ambush.

He wasn't disappointed as the puddles erupted, spewing forth the same mist ninjas that had tried to steal their scroll that morning.

"Give us one of your scrolls and we'll let you walk away with the other." One of the three snarled.

"No, I don't think I will." Naruto's clone grinned. "So you actually managed to get a scroll without blowing yourselves to smithereens?" He taunted.

"Shutup!" The leader snapped. "You're the brat from yesterday." His gray eyes flicked to the bandage on the orange clad teen's thigh. "Huh, looks like one of us got you after all."

"You wish, I got a little scratch when the shrine blew up." The clone laughed it off.

A kunai silenced his laugh and the clone vanished in a puff of smoke.

"Well, that wasn't very friendly." Another Naruto moved into view. "You forget about the no killing rule? That kunai was aimed at my heart."

"Hmph, that's what's wrong with you leaf ninjas. You're all weak...soft."

"You only say that because you don't know a thing about us." Naruto growled.

"I know enough to be able to leave you in pieces without killing you...at least not right away."

"Try it." The blonde offered simply, his void devoid of its usual warmth.

"Nah, you're probably just another clone." The mist ninja laughed scornfully. "You leaf ninjas don't have the guts to stand up and make it a fair fight."

"Says the guy who was pretending to be a puddle a few minutes ago." The real Naruto stood and moved from his concealment, trying not to favor his injured leg, letting the clone poof out of existence.

Manabu moved with him, hidden in the jinchuriki's shadow as he went through the hand signs to trigger his genjutsu. The older man's fingers flew through the signs faster than he had ever tried before. 'Just a few more moments...'

"Now..." He said and Naruto stepped swiftly aside as the genjutsu fell over the three mist-nin.

Unsure what had just happened, the three reacted by attacking immediately.

The leader suddenly bristled with kunai and he began to throw them rapidly. Naruto remained still as all of the weapons went well wide of hitting him. The next man poured out his water whip and lashed out at Naruto, only to hear his companion cry out in pain as the lash caught the third mist ninja instead of the orange clad teen. The man crumpled in pain as the watery weapon knocked the wind from his lungs. Two Narutos were on the fallen man instantly, trussing him up and punching him into unconsciousness.

Matsuri's chain whip lashed out and caught the kunai wielding leader around his ankles. A sharp tug sent the large man crashing to the ground where two more Narutos pounced on him and efficiently rendered him unable to fight back as well.

Matsuri reeled in her weapon and approached the real Naruto, still standing beside Manabu. The trio eyed the final man. It was easy to see his mind working, trying to figure out how the ambush had gone so spectacularly wrong. Naruto saw the light dawn in his eyes and the mist ninja prepared to dispel the genjutsu...

...Just as half a dozen Narutos dropped out of the trees and wrestled him to the ground by sheer strength of numbers.

"Aha!" One of the clones sitting on the leader grinned and held up the scroll, tossing it to Naruto.

The blonde tried to catch it but lost his balance and stumbled to his knees. All the clones disappeared, thankfully having finished restraining the final mist ninja. Matsuri scrambled to catch the falling jinchuriki as Manabu darted over to make sure the last enemy joined his teammates in sleep.

"Sorry..." Naruto gasped as the fall jarred his leg and sent waves of agony pulsing through him. "Got dizzy."

Matsuri struggled to get the blonde back to his feet as Manabu retrieved the prized scroll.

"Come on Naruto." The Suna ninja ordered as she dragged him upright, slinging his arm over her shoulder and letting him lean on her. "We got the scrolls. Let's get out of here. Gaara-sensei will be really disappointed if you fail now."

It was just the right thing to say to prod the leaf ninja into moving forward with her.

It seemed to take ages to reach the doors of the building but no one appeared to stop them. Manabu pushed aside the large wooden obstacles and then hurried back to take the blonde's other arm as he realized Naruto had fallen unconscious at some point during the short walk.

A plaque on the wall gave them the simple instructions to open the scrolls.

Matsuri leaned the injured teen against the wall and dug in his jacket for the first scroll they had gotten. She tried to ignore the boy's rapid breathing and his too pale complexion, not to mention the fever she could feel through his shirt. Tossing the scroll to Manabu she took the second one and they prepared to open them together.

"I hope this brings help." She muttered, cracking the seal with a prayer.

To Be Continued...

* * *

Author's Note: Yeah it is a little short but I didn't want to get into the aftermath in this chapter. The next chapter is ready to be posted. I'm just waiting for five reviews for this chapter and then I'll make it magically appear. I will not be able to post at all this weekend so if I don't put it up tomorrow you will have to wait until Monday. ^_^ Yes, I may be slightly evil...or maybe just desperate for feedback. lol.


	11. Chapter Eleven: Longer Days

Author's Note: Hmm...well, I'm going to first of all admit that I don't know a whole lot about medicine in our own universe (mostly what I pick up from television and my EMT hubby), much less in the Naruto-verse where details are pretty scarce, so I won't say all my medical mumbo-jumbo is entirely accurate. As for what Kyuubi is doing about this injury...well, I'll cover that in this chapter, please excuse me if it seems a bit contrived. These chapters sort of wrote themselves with very little input from the author. lol. Thanks for paying my ransom so quickly once again. ^_^ I love you all! This chapter is it until Monday most likely so no ransom this time. Reviews are still greatly appreciated though.

Sandstorms and Falling Leaves

Chapter 11: Longer Days

The sun had finally risen. Gaara was sluggishly getting ready for the day when a frantic knock at the door pulled her from her room. She wondered if it was Naruto, coming to tell her he'd passed the second stage, and the thought quickened her step as she crossed the living area.

The pink hair of her visitor squashed that small hope. The stricken look on the girl's face made the redhead's heart clench and her breath catch.

"Sakura, what?" She managed to choke out, slightly sharper than she had intended.

"It's Naruto. He was injured during the exam. He's in the hospital..." The young mednin gulped, looking faintly sick. "It looked really bad, he wasn't even conscious and there was a lot of blood and they said they didn't need my help and I didn't know if anyone else would think to tell you since...well...you and Naruto aren't...that is to say...you don't...uh...it is common knowledge that you two are uh..."

"Take me to him now." The redhead ordered sharply, cutting off the pink haired girl's rambling.

The pair darted from the apartment complex, leaving Temari standing silently in the livingroom, which was as far as she had made it when Gaara had reached the door.

"Don't let that little idiot die..." She muttered as she went to dress and gather the shoes and coat her little sister had left behind in her hasty exit. "I don't think Gaara could stand to lose him..."

With a quick stop to inform their brother of the situation, Temari was on her way to the hospital. She wasn't sure what good she could do but she figured she could at least be there for her baby sister.

* * *

Gaara entered the hospital ahead of Sakura but hesitated, unsure where to go.

"Stay here." The pink haired girl patted the shorter teen's arm and went to ask the desk nurse for an update on Naruto's condition.

Each moment to the waiting redhead seemed to last for hours before Sakura was hurrying back, her expression less than reassuring.

"He's alive." She hastened to assure her friend. "Let's go. Matsuri is in the waiting room down the hall."

Gaara followed numbly in the taller girl's wake as Sakura lead them to a small, crowded room lined with chairs. Matsuri spotted them almost immediately and rushed over. She dropped to her knees in front of the redhead, head bowed in shame.

"I'm so sorry, Kazekage-sama." She blurted breathlessly. "I should have paid more attention, should have seen that it was worse than Naruto was letting on. It was such a small wound, and at first he seemed okay and he was just so insistent on passing the test..."

"Matsuri." Gaara cut the younger girl off with a softly spoken word and a hand on her shoulder. "Look at me."

The distraught genin looked up hesitantly.

"Whatever happens, it is not your fault." The redhead assured her slowly. "Now what have they told you?"

An older man joined the group, looking uncomfortable but he bowed in greeting. "Manabu Akado. I'm the third for Matsuri's squad."

Gaara's aqua colored eyes locked onto the elder genin, noting the smear of blood on his pants. The ninja accountant took a step back from the intensity in the dark rimmed gaze. "What happened to Naruto?" She demanded, growing impatient with the lack of information.

"It was a piece of debris from an explosion." Manabu explained carefully. "It stuck him in the leg. The injury didn't seem too bad at first but it wouldn't stop bleeding and then I think it may have gotten infected. By the time we realized how severe it was, we were almost through with the test. It was faster to finish than go back for help. We reached the mission objective and then the proctors brought us straight here."

He watched as the exiled Kazekage nodded her gratitude for the concise explanation and made her way over to one of the room's many chairs. She dropped into it heavily, as if she simply didn't have the energy to stay standing any longer. Then she crossed her arms across her t-shirt clad chest and waited. She didn't fidget or look around and she barely acknowledged attempts to talk to her. Only her sister's arrival got any response at all as she allowed the older girl to put an arm around her shoulders and leaned into the offered comfort for just a moment before resuming her vigil.

* * *

"Naruto Uzumaki?" A young mednin stood in the doorway of the waiting room. "Family of Naruto Uzumaki?"

Gaara turned her fierce gaze on the hapless young man, in front of him before she was aware of moving from her seat. It had been several hours since she'd arrived and they had had no news. "Is he going to survive?" She all but snapped, trying to control her temper.

"I'm only allowed to give information to family Miss. How are you related to..."

"He doesn't have..." Sakura started to explain.

"I am his girlfriend." Gaara's voice was deceptively calm and Matsuri and Sakura took a step back from the angry redhead. "Furthermore, I am Kazekage of Sunagakure. You will tell me everything you know about Naruto Uzumaki's condition or I will bury you so deep even the worms won't know where to find you."

"Stop scaring the help, Gaara." A tired voice cut in as Tsunade waved the terrified mednin away. "Come on, my office is this way."

The redhead needed no further prompting to follow the Hokage down the hall to a small office tucked between two exam rooms. Temari was just a step behind her little sister. The other three followed more hesitantly but none of them were willing to miss whatever the woman had to say.

They crowded into the cramped office and shut the door.

"He's alive and knowing how stubborn he is, he'll stay that way." The older blonde stated simply, rubbing her neck tiredly. "The shrapnel that lodged in his leg perforated his femoral artery. The bleeding wouldn't stop and the idiot pushed himself to finish the exam which didn't help. If he were anyone else he'd have bled to death hours ago. Still, repairing that was a relatively easy fix though he has lost a lot of blood." She sighed. "The infection is the problem now. By the time they got him here, it had already gone systemic."

"Blood poisoning." Temari scowled in dismay. In Suna that was practically a death sentence.

Gaara was almost white and her hands gripped the arms of her chair with enough force to crack the dense wood. Tsunade had said Naruto should live. The redhead clung to those words as she waited for the woman to finish.

"I think we got to him in time. I've managed to cleanse most of the infection from his blood with a process similar to the one Sakura used when your brother was poisoned. The rest will just have to run its course. Naruto is strong and he's got more will to fight than just about anyone I've ever known, not to mention...other factors he has in his favor." She avoided mentioning the nine-tailed fox directly, unsure how much Naruto had shared with his temporary squad mates. "He has a good chance to recover fully if he makes it through the next few days."Tsunade finished with a weak smile. Truthfully, the odds weren't great but she long ago decided that betting on Naruto was smarter than betting against him.

Gaara pushed herself to her feet, ignoring the arm of the chair snapping as she used it for leverage. "I need to see him, Tsunade."

"Sure. Follow me." The blonde woman stood and ushered the group out of her office. "He's probably still out, he hasn't regained consciousness at all since they brought him in. You can all go in and see him but then you need to clear out and let him rest."

"I'm staying." Gaara announced immediately.

Tsunade smiled crookedly. "Yeah, I figured you would say that." She'd heard the redhead's declaration just a few minutes earlier. "Okay but just you. Everyone else is limited to ten minute visits and no more than three visitors at once, counting Gaara."

"I can't leave my sister without a guard." Temari spoke up.

"You can guard from outside the room once your ten minutes are up." The Hokage informed the younger blonde lightly. "Here we are."

Gaara beat her to the door and darted inside, freezing at the sight of the still figure on the bed. She moved forward slowly, needing to be near him but at the same time wanting to wake up as she had the night before when she had dreamed he was hurt.

Her hand caught his pale, warm one and everything was suddenly very real. Someone pushed a chair up behind her and she sat without taking her eyes off the blonde jinchuriki's still features. Naruto was never still, even in sleep. He twitched, he talked sometimes, he even occasionally flailed himself into a snarl of limbs and blankets. This...this was unnatural.

She was only dimly aware of the others entering the room. Tsunade was talking to them but the words held no meaning for the redhead. Her focus was entirely on the sleeping jinchuriki. She refused to think of him as anything but sleeping.

'He will wake up. The demon won't let him die.' She told herself. 'Everything will be fine.'

She didn't notice when the Hokage ushered the rest of the group out. She paid only fleeting attention to the other visitors that came through as the day wore on, a brief glance to ensure they weren't a threat and then they ceased to matter. She cataloged them in the back of her mind. Hinata and Shino were first. Rock Lee came around midday, with Sakura in tow. Kakashi put in an appearance early in the afternoon. A chunin with a scar across his nose who introduced himself as Iruka showed up mid-afternoon. Even Nara wandered in at one point.

Temari and Kankuro took turns checking on the silent redhead every hour. One of them brought her a sandwich at some point but it sat on the bedside table untouched.

Eventually, even Gaara's worry was overwhelmed by the fact that she had gotten less than an hour of sleep in almost forty-eight hours and she laid her head down on the edge of the bed and fell asleep. She never let go of the Naruto's hand.

* * *

Naruto dreamed. He was fighting a fiery beast that kept trying to crush him under its massive clawed feet. The heat rolling off of it was stifling and he couldn't seem to get far enough away to get any relief. The beast caught him by the leg, holding him upside down and laughing in a voice he recognized but couldn't place.

"Now you die brat."

Everything faded then and the next time Naruto was aware, he was standing in the forest holding two scrolls and he was wearing the robes of the Hokage. He grinned, but then he noticed the blood spattered on the ground around him. He looked closer and found that the ground was actually a pile of corpses beneath him. So many bodies, some were old enemies and these he looked away from sadly but then his eye caught on familiar figures that ripped a cry from his throat. Sasuke lay amongst the dead and Sakura beside him. Kakashi's corpse was a few feet away, still clutching his stupid book, but someone had gouged out his one normal eye. Jiraiya was slumped against a tree, looking asleep except for the gaping hole in his chest.

Then the leaf ninja spotted something that sent him scrambling over the pile without heed for who or what he might be stepping on. Red hair.

He reached for the body with shaking hands, turning the slim figure over slowly.

"No..." He mumbled.

Aqua eyes stared up at him, clouded with death, empty. He searched the body for some sign of life, some hint of what had killed her but his gaze kept being drawn back to her face. Somehow he only knew he could have saved her.

He could have saved them all.

"Nooo! Gaara!" He screamed, clutching her cold corpse to his chest and rocking as he grieved.

* * *

Gaara was awoken by a small sound, a twitch of the hand she was holding. At first she thought the jinchuriki might be waking up but a quick glance told her he was still out cold. He seemed to be in the throes of a nightmare.

'Well, he keeps mine away...I suppose I can try to banish his...'

She hesitantly squeezed the blonde's hand, but his face was still creased and he was mumbling something.

"...m sorry...Gaara...no..."

Gaara's eyes widened slightly as she heard her name fall from his lips. "I'm here Naruto." She told him, brushing her hand across his too pale cheek, tracing the markings there.

The sound of her voice seemed to help so she kept talking softly to him, telling him childhood stories about her siblings, events from the years he had been away, her suspicions about her sister and the Nara heir.

She wasn't sure when she had crawled into the bed on his uninjured side and curled against him, she only knew that his face had smoothed out and he stopped calling out for her as he sank into a more peaceful sleep.

* * *

Temari entered the room to check on her sister and froze as she took in the tableau. The redhead was curled against Naruto's side with her head on his shoulder, holding his hand. More surprising was the steady stream of words spilling from the usually quiet girl. The older Suna ninja stood and let the softly spoken monologue wash over for a minute before Gaara finally noticed she wasn't alone.

"Then Baki had Kankuro run all...Temari." The redhead acknowledged her sister, letting the room fall silent for the first time in almost an hour. She didn't move from her self-appointed place, even though part of her wanted to jump up guiltily.

"Yeah...uh...Hey Sis." The blonde managed, after a moment to recover from the oddity of hearing her sister talking so much. "Any change?"

"He had a nightmare." The redhead offered, turning her attention back to the sleeping leaf ninja. "I think his fever may have broken a little while ago."

"That's good." Temari walked over and sat down in the currently unoccupied chair. The silence stretched on for a few minutes making the older girl oddly uncomfortable.

She found herself watching her sister for lack of anything else to do in the sterile little room. The redhead was rubbing circles on the back of Naruto's hand with her thumb.

"So...this is what you do at night?" Temari asked slowly.

"Sort of." The redhead admitted with a small shrug.

Temari had expected more of a reaction, at least a blush, but what she got instead shocked her a little. Her baby sister was really in love. "Well, what do you know..." She mumbled under her breath, with a small smile. "You sure know how to pick them complicated, Sis." She raised her voice to a conversational level, wanting to be sure Gaara had really thought the situation through.

Gaara was tired enough that she briefly considered playing dumb, but that wasn't really in her nature. "The best things in life are worth fighting for." She said with a fond glance at her sleeping boyfriend.

"I see...and what about your dreams for the future of Suna? For that matter, doesn't he want to be the next Hokage? There's no way you can both achieve those dreams. Someone's is going to have to make sacrifices." Temari cringed at her own bluntness but her sister needed to hear these things. She wished someone had brought up these sorts of issues to her before she fell for Shikamaru.

"I...I don't know what to do about that." Gaara admitted quietly. "But we have nearly two years to decide."

"True. Just keep it in mind, okay? I...I just don't want to see you get hurt." With that the older sand ninja stood and went back to her post outside the door.

* * *

Naruto swam up from a sea of blackness, his body felt like someone had attached weights to his limbs and his leg ached dully. Something had him pinned down on one side and he struggled to open his uncooperative eyes so he could figure out what it was.

The first sight he saw as he finally managed to lift heavy lids was the hospital ceiling. It probably should have disturbed him that he recognized the dull white stucco with just a glance. The next thing he saw made a small smile grace his face.

"Gaara." The redhead was curled against him, fast asleep. The leaf ninja's voice was barely a whisper through his dry throat but the young woman's eyes opened instantly and she lifted her head to meet his gaze.

"You came back." She whispered with a small smile.

"Huh?" The blonde blinked in confusion. "How long was I out?"

"Since yesterday morning."

Naruto tried to process that. "Huh...the last thing I remember was feeling dizzy and then...the exam!" His eyes went wide as he remembered what he'd been doing.

"You passed." Gaara assured him simply.

"I...oh...okay then. So, how long until the next round?"

"One month."

"I better start training then." The leaf ninja tried to get up but he quickly discovered that he was either more tired than he thought...or Gaara had somehow made herself weigh about a ton.

"You have time. Rest." The redhead ordered, settling back down into her previous position.

Unable, and slightly unwilling, to push the warm body off of himself, Naruto was left with little choice except to relax. Still, a token resistance had to be made and he struggled briefly to rise before giving in with a huff and putting his arms around the contented girl.

A thought struck him just as he was starting to drift off, bringing his eyes open again. "Hey...aren't you worried someone will see us like this?"

"No. Sleep."

It wasn't much of an answer but since the blonde didn't really want her to leave, he decided not to press her and together the couple drifted off.

To Be Continued...

Author's Note: There. I hope I didn't squick anyone with Naruto's dream. I figured Gaara shouldn't hog all the bad dreams. I also hope I explained why Kyuubi didn't just poof the wound away. _' A person can bleed out from a severed femoral artery in just a minute or two, though Naruto's artery was only damaged, not completely severed. Still, Kyuubi was fighting to replace the massive amount of blood our favorite knucklehead was steadily losing and it couldn't deal with that and the injury and the infection at the same time. His healing factor just isn't that good (maybe if he was Deadpool...best Marvel character ever in my opinion, but I digress). No, the wood wasn't poisoned, but do you know how many types of bacteria thrive in moist, warm wood...let's just say it's scary.

So yeah, with the blood loss stopped, it won't take Kyuubi long to get our "little ninja that could" up and going again. It probably could have even dealt with the infection without further intervention but Tsunade wasn't going to risk it and it would have taken longer and Naruto has finals to train for. Next chapter is all written. Romance is in the air as our couple spends the day together to celebrate Naruto's release from the hospital and his passing of the second phase of the exam. ^_^


	12. Chapter Twelve: Taking Time

Author's Note: Well, my husband and I are officially homeless as of Saturday morning. We're both pretty oddly okay with it though. It's kind of crazy. We both have decent jobs, he even just got promoted, but now we get evicted. Thankfully some friends from church helped us move our stuff into storage and let us stay with them for a couple of days. Now we have a nice little rent by the week motel room while we look for something more permanent. On the plus side, this means I have wifi access outside of work so you get this chapter a day before I thought I'd be able to post it. ^_^ Think of it as a reward for all the great reviews you posted when I didn't even demand them as ransom. lol. Beware! There be fluff ahead! O_o'

Sandstorms and Falling Leaves

Chapter Twelve: Taking Time

Naruto was released from the hospital the next day. His health had improved rapidly, proving that having a demon locked inside you did have a few benefits. He still wasn't feeling up to his usual energy level but he knew he'd bounce back in no time. Gaara stayed with him the entire time, much to the consternation of the hospital staff and the amusement of the Hokage when she came to check on her favorite knucklehead before his release.

Naruto's friends had accepted her presence with varying levels of surprise, and in Nara's case indifference. Hinata had turned positively scarlet and let out a small squeak when she walked in and saw the redhead sleeping in the bed with him. Naruto had sheepishly gestured for her to be quiet and let the sand ninja rest. He had the feeling the ex-jinchuriki hadn't relaxed much while he was unconscious.

* * *

"Come on." Gaara tugged him away from the hospital as soon as they stepped outside. She knew just what would make him feel better quickly.

Naruto followed in her wake, still favoring his leg slightly as it now ached like a bad bruise. He grinned as he realized where she was taking him.

"Ichiraku!" He grinned and hugged the redhead happily. "Just what I need! You're the best, Gaara."

Gaara blushed at the praise and the pair ducked under the restaurant's curtains and took two of the empty seats at the counter.

"Naruto-kun!" The proprietor grinned at them. "And the Kazekage as well." He bowed to her and she nodded back. "What'll it be?"

Naruto ordered loudly, rubbing his hands together in anticipation and bouncing on his stool. Gaara placed her own order without ever taking her amused eyes off of her date.

"My treat." She told the hyperactive ninja with a small smirk.

"What? No...I can pay."

"No."

Naruto frowned but the bowl of ramen that appeared in front of him distracted him from saying anything further on the subject.

Gaara found herself rather hungry and ate two full bowls, while the blonde went through five. She paid the check while he was still eating so he couldn't continue to argue with her about it.

He frowned when he noticed what she had done but let it go, not wanting to spoil the day.

* * *

"Naruto! Oi!" Kiba waved as they left the ramen stand. "How're you doing?"

"Great!" The blonde grinned at the teen and his dog. He hadn't seen either of them in weeks. "Where have you been?"

"Had a mission. Can't say much about it. You know how it is sometimes." The dark haired boy shrugged. "Have you seen Hinata or Shino around? I wanted to let them know I'm back."

"Well, Hinata visited me in the hospital yesterday. I haven't seen Shino in a while." The leaf genin thought back.

"They both visited." Gaara told him quietly.

Her voice drew Kiba's attention, before he could ask what the resilient jinchuriki was doing in the hospital, and he studied her figure intently. Gaara resisted the urge to fidget self-consciously. She was wearing a short green skirt, black leggings, and a plain, close-fitting white shirt. It was what her sister had come up with when she had asked to be brought a change of clothes. Gaara had the feeling her oldest sibling had way too much fun making her look like the girl she now was, but she hadn't bothered to protest. Sometimes it was wiser to pick one's battles with Temari, though now she was beginning to regret letting the blonde girl have free reign with her wardrobe.

"So who's your friend?" The hound master asked with a sharp toothed grin.

Gaara raised an eyebrow at his tone but let Naruto field the question.

"Oh...you don't recognize her?" The blonde asked curiously. "This is Gaara...my uh...girlfriend." He wasn't sure why he added that last part, something in him didn't like the way Kiba was looking the redhead over.

The girl blushed at his words, but she really couldn't object since she had used her status as his girlfriend to secure her right to stay with him in the hospital. 'And Ino came to visit so everyone probably already knows by now anyway.' She thought dryly. 'Except this one apparently.' The redhead amended her thought upon seeing Kiba's expression of confusion.

Kiba blinked, looking at her face more closely and taking an uncomfortable step back. "Gaara...Suna's Kazekage Gaara? That Gaara?" He sputtered. "I thought you were a guy..." He scratched his head, opening his mouth to ask any number of questions he had popping up in his head.

"Long story. Ask Ino." The redhead offered with a small shrug, before grabbing Naruto's hand and pulling him away from the befuddled teen.

The blonde's laughter echoed down the street as he followed her gamely.

* * *

They stopped a few streets away. Gaara hadn't really had any destination in mind other than away from Kiba. Now she wasn't sure where they should go.

"Naruto..."

"Yeah?" The blonde prompted when she hesitated.

"What do couples do on dates here?" The redhead asked with a light blush staining her pale skin.

"Oh...is this...I mean...right. Well, uh...I don't really know. Um...you're actually the first girl I've ever really dated." He admitted, rubbing his neck.

"Oh...good."

The leaf genin frowned in confusion. "Good? What do you mean?"

"It makes us sort of...even."

"Oh...um...Okay then. What would you like to do?"

"I...I'd like to go somewhere we can be alone."

The blonde thought for a minute. "I do know one place...there isn't usually anyone up there. Come on."

Ten minutes later, they were perched on top of the fourth Hokage's stone visage, looking out over the bustling village. Naruto had been right, no one was visiting the scenic spot except them. It was peaceful and, for a little while they sat in comfortable silence, just enjoying the view.

Naruto reached over and took her hand. "Someday, my face is gonna be up here you know." He said confidently.

Temari's words echoed through the redhead's skull and she scowled slightly at the intrusion on their date. Still, maybe they did need to talk about it. They'd said they would fight for their relationship but they'd never discussed how hard that fight could actually get.

"Naruto. Have you thought about..." She shook her head, that didn't feel like the right question. "What..." She took a deep breath and looked away from his increasingly confused face. "When you think about your future, am I in it?"

"Of course!" The hyperactive teen blurted immediately.

She held up her hand to stop him. "Think about it, really think. How would this work if you become Hokage and I return to Suna...if I remain Kazekage? We would never get to see each other. Not to mention the objections the councils would no doubt raise..." She trailed off, a little sadly.

"Gaara..." The blonde reached for her and pulled her into a hug. "If and when you go back...if the council accepts you as Kazekage again, and they'd have to be idiots not to..." He grinned into her hair. "Well, then I'll just have to come with you."

"You...That would mean giving up on becoming Hokage...I can't let you do that." She protested, trying halfheartedly to pull away. "I will not let you give up on your dreams for my sake. You would end up hating me for it later."

"I don't think I could hate you if I wanted to." The blonde smiled sheepishly. "Besides, you could be Kazekage for a while...ten or twenty years maybe, then we could move back here and I could become Hokage. We're still young, we've got plenty of time to do anything we set our minds to."

Gaara sat back and looked at him, her eyes going wide in amazement. 'He really believes it could be that easy...maybe with him it could be.' She found herself starting to smile back at him, the optimism oddly contagious. "How do you do that?" She asked curiously with just a hint of fondness.

"Do what?" Naruto blinked at her, utterly clueless.

"Make everything sound so certain..so easy."

He shrugged. "Because...if you want something bad enough, if you are determined enough, things will eventually go your way."

"Hmph." She snorted a brief laugh. His statement wasn't entirely true in her experience. Still, the way he said that, you'd never know what a difficult life the young man had had. It was actually pretty astounding to the generally pragmatic redhead. "I love you, Naruto." The words slipped out easily and she was surprised to realize how much she meant them.

The blonde's teasing grin became a genuine smile as Gaara let the endearment slip out. "I love you too." He told her happily.

Gaara wasn't sure which of them leaned in first but she was aware the moment their lips met and it just felt right. His hand came up to tangle in her hair and his tongue darted out, licking her lips as if asking for permission to deepen the kiss. Permission she granted with pleasure.

The next few minutes were a blur of soft lips, busy tongues, and hesitantly wandering hands. When they finally broke apart, it was with obvious reluctance.

Naruto scooted away from her on the stone ledge, hoping that the small distance might help him reign in the hormones currently wreaking havoc on his self-control.

"We...we should probably head back." Gaara announced, not looking at the blonde for fear she might give in to the urge to kiss him again. "Before my brother and sister come looking for me."

That was just what Naruto needed to cool his ardor. "Yeah. Let's get you home. I'm sure after hanging around the hospital for so long, you probably want to shower and...er..." His logic failed him as the word shower conjured up images more powerful than the threats of her siblings. "Uh..."

"Naruto are you okay?" She frowned at the teen curiously.

"Yeah, fine." He choked out, pushing himself to his feet and reaching down to pull her up.

She accepted the hand, more for an excuse to touch him than because she needed any help rising. The young couple walked away, heading down the winding path that would lead to the village, hand in hand.

* * *

Neither noticed the two figures hidden in the bushes.

"Is it too late to revisit the idea of killing him in his sleep?" Kankuro asked grimly, once the pair was out of earshot.

"Probably...You heard her. She's in love with him...and you know she'd know it was us." Temari replied dryly.

"Then I guess we don't have any choice." The hooded teen admitted sourly.

"Yeah, I know." The eldest agreed with a sigh.

The sibling pair took off in separate directions, Kankuro to continue following his younger sister as her guard and Temari to figure out how best to achieve the goal they had just agreed upon.

To Be Continued...

* * *

Author's note: It is a bit short and well, sappy, but I didn't want to lump it in with the next section and I was feeling the romance. lol. Next chapter gets into training for the upcoming finals in the chunin exam (no prelims this time since only a dozen applicants passed). Gaara needs to get back to work too if she's ever gonna unlock her blocked chakra network and Temari and Kankuro...let's just say they'll be around though their nefarious plot may take a while to bear fruit. ^_^' I hope you all enjoyed this chapter. Please review. I won't demand a ransom this time...but I can't say they won't encourage me to finish editing the next chapter more quickly. *winks* lol


	13. Chapter 13: Experiments and Accidents

Author's Note: Sorry for the wait. I needed to let my brain have a break so I took the week off from this story. Now I am ready to pick it up again. I hope you like this chapter. Please review!

Sandstorms and Falling Leaves

Chapter Thirteen: Experiments and Accidents

* * *

Naruto was on his way to meet Matsuri and Manabu for some sparring. He'd been out of the hospital for two days and he was feeling almost normal again.

"Naruto. Yo." Kakashi fell into step beside him. "I've been instructed to help you train for the final stage of the exam."

"Okay, do you have any really cool jutsus I can learn in three weeks?" The hyperactive jinchuriki practically vibrated with excitement at the thought.

"We'll see." The silver haired jonin shrugged.

"Alright! Let's go!" Naruto sped off, heedless of the fact that the masked shinobi continued along at his previous pace.

Kakashi shook his head. "And here I thought he'd matured some while he was away."

* * *

Gaara reached the training grounds just after dawn, carrying a heavy earthenware pot full of sand, since she still hadn't replaced her gourd. She wasn't due to meet the Hyuuga heiress for several hours but she wanted to try something and she didn't want anyone around in case it went badly.

'Jutsus were always easier when I was angry or upset. Shukaku had more control when I let go. So, maybe...' The thoughts had been percolating in the back of her mind all night.

Gaara thought back over everything that she had recently been through: the Akatsuki's attack, her excruciating death at their hands, Chiho's death to revive her, her exile by the council, the assassination attempt, Naruto's injury, her frustration with her new limits, her ongoing nightmares, dealing with suddenly being female after a lifetime spent as a male...

For the first time in years, she let all of her strongest negative emotions out of the carefully constructed box she had shoved them into. She let go of the tight reigns that had allowed her to wrest control away from Shukaku. Gaara let herself feel angry. Not just a little angry, she let herself be well and truly furious at a world that couldn't let her hold onto even a little bit of peace.

She lashed out with the sand, shattering the pot and sending the grains hurtling towards a tree. She pummeled the hapless foliage into splinters within seconds and moved her ball of sand on to the next target, a large rock. Soon the rock had been ground down into nothing but more sand which she added to the mass she was already manipulating.

She was starting to feel dizzy but she let that feeling fuel her anger. "I am not weak." A tree fell as she rammed it with her sand. "I am not some helpless creature to need protecting." The ball slammed into the ground hard enough to leave a substantial crater. "If I ever catch the Akatsuki bastards that tried to destroy me, I am going to make them wish I was still as merciful as I was before I met Naruto!" The ball rose above her head and exploded, sending razor sharp daggers of sand hurtling out in all directions.

Gaara knew her chakra was spent but she kept pushing, gathering the scattered granules and starting again. Then, something snapped. She felt strength that she had been beginning to think had deserted her. She drew from it eagerly, moving smoothly through several of her more complicated jutsus and finishing with a sand tsunami that left her the only thing standing for several hundred yards around.

The redhead was sweating and tense, her hands clenched at her sides as she looked for another target to turn her rage on.

"G-G-Gaara-san?"

Hinata's small voice squeaked from behind her and she reacted without thinking, turning her sand on the girl with a thought and a sharp gesture. The blue-haired ninja was lifted off her feet by a giant sand fist.

"Gaara! Please stop!" The girl screamed as the sand rushed to engulf her. Violet eyes went wide in terror. She'd seen this jutsu before and had no desire to be on the receiving end of it.

The redhead seemed to come back to herself with a start and she paled at what she had almost done. Her anger was banished by shame and the sand fell away from the leaf ninja as its wielder crumpled in on herself. In the anger's wake came sorrow as always. The Suna ninja wrapped her arms around herself and dropped to her knees, bowing her head to hide the tears she could no longer contain and rocking herself as she had when she was a child with no one to comfort her.

Except now she felt gentle arms wrap around her and a soft voice speaking soothingly as she sobbed.

"It's okay Gaara. I'm not hurt. I shouldn't have startled you. It's okay. Calm down." The stream of words continued even though the speaker wasn't sure she was getting through to the broken young woman in her arms.

* * *

Finally the wracking sobs eased and the redhead was able to catch her breath enough to speak.

"Why?" She rasped, clearing her throat before elaborating as she glanced at the blue haired teen's confused expression. "After...what I just did...why are you still here?"

"Because I'm your friend, Gaara." Hinata replied simply, as if it should have been obvious.

Maybe it would have been, to someone who had grown up having friends. Gaara couldn't fathom how the girl could trust her enough to stay near her after she'd nearly crushed the gentle leaf ninja in a fit of temper.

"I..." The ex-jinchuriki could think of no response that seemed adequate. "I'm sorry." She finally said lamely, knowing the apology wasn't enough.

"You didn't hurt me. It's fine." The blue haired girl smiled shakily. "Just...uh...try not to do it again okay?"

"Okay." Gaara agreed shakily, trying to pull her facade of calm back together. It was easier letting her suppressed emotions out than it was to put them back now that they were doing their best to turn her mind to mush.

"So...what was all this anyway?" The girl gestured around at the destruction of their training area.

"It was...an experiment. It got out of hand." The sand ninja cringed at the mention of hands but the other girl didn't seem to catch the accidental pun.

"Oh...and did it work?" Hinata asked curiously.

"In a way." Gaara conceded thoughtfully. "I got to the chakra...but I lost control of myself doing it." She shuddered. "It felt...almost like before I met Naruto...except without the voice in my head to direct me." Her eyes grew distant with memory and her voice was almost a whisper.

Hinata paled but tried not to show the already conflicted Suna teen how unsettling that idea was. "Okay, well if the key to accessing your chakra reserve is in using strong emotions as a conduit...um...why don't you try using something other than anger?"

"Like what?" The ex-jinchuriki wondered.

"Well...um...something more positive might be a little more controllable, maybe."

"Hn." The redhead frowned. "I'll...have to think about it."

"Okay...Well, in the meantime it looks like we may need to find a new place to train...somewhere further from the village might be good." Hinata smiled, hoping her friend wouldn't take that the wrong way.

Instead she was surprised when the sand manipulator coughed out a brittle sounding laugh and nodded, pushing herself to her feet. Aqua eyes fluttered closed and the slender girl swayed dizzily. Hinata reached out to her instinctively, but didn't quite touch her, suspecting that her help wouldn't be appreciated this time. After a moment, the unsteady feeling passed and Gaara opened her eyes. She was surprised to see violet eyes watching her with concern and a hand hovering just inches from her arm, ready to catch her if she fell.

'I nearly kill her and she's worried about my health...' Gaara marveled again, her heart clenching at the idea of hurting the sweet tempered Hyuuga girl. 'Of course...Naruto does much the same thing...always trying to save his enemies...'

"I'm fine. Just tired." She assured the leaf ninja with a dismissive wave of her hand.

Hinata nodded, not at all convinced but knowing the redhead wouldn't react well to her hovering. She took a step back to give her friend some space to collect herself. There was a haunted look in the redhead's dark rimmed eyes. Even as she schooled her features into a mask of calm. Her eyes betrayed her inner turmoil.

"So do you still feel up to training?" The dark haired girl asked slowly.

"I...no." Gaara felt drained and she wasn't sure if it was from chakra exhaustion or from the intense emotions she hadn't dealt with in years.

"Alright, well...then do you want to go get something to eat?" The leaf chunin offered with a genuine smile.

The redhead blinked. "...Okay." She agreed finally.

* * *

The rest of the day was uneventful. The two teens ate lunch and then Hinata went to find her teammates. Gaara didn't want to go home. Instead she wandered around the village, trying vainly to reconstruct the control that had taken her months to wrest from Shukaku. It should have been easier without the demon whispering in her mind but she was discovering that a fair amount of the problem was actually her own temper.

'Should have known that...with my family.' Her father had been prone to fits of blind rage, lashing out at her siblings and the household staff. The idea of being anything like that man made the food that she had just eaten, suddenly weigh heavily in her stomach. 'I can't go home...they'll see it. That I'm just like him...the demon was just an excuse...' She darted into an alley and wretched until her stomach was empty.

Spitting and wiping her mouth with her sleeve, she looked around, relieved when she saw no one paying any attention to her. Tired of the press of people in the streets, she fled to the rooftops. She had no destination in mind but soon found herself back at the rooftop bench that she had found the day she ran into Nara and his large friend. It was deserted and she sank heavily onto the worn wood, pulling her feet up and curling herself into a ball as she ran the events of the morning over and over in her mind until they ceased to make any sense at all.

'How can I ever face Hinata again? How can I face Temari and Kankuro?' Her thoughts spiraled into dark places and she moaned between clenched teeth. 'What will Naruto think?'

"Hey." A familiar, bored voice suddenly intruded on her self-loathing. "You okay?"

She didn't look up. "Fine."

"Okay. Can I sit here or did you want to be alone?"

She didn't answer, which he seemed to take as permission to stay. She felt him settle on the other end of the bench. The silence stretched out and she did her best to ignore his presence.

He ruined this by speaking again. "Troublesome." He mumbled.

At this, she finally lifted her head to find him shaking his and watching the cloudy sky intently. "What?"

"You are troublesome." He explained tiredly. "Or...well...Your sister is anyway. I know that whatever is bothering you, it is none of my business and frankly I don't really want to know." He ran a hand over his spiky ponytail and sighed. "But I also know Temari would be furious with me if I let you sit here beside me and self-destruct, without making at least some effort to talk you out of it." He shook his head again. "See? Troublesome."

Gaara couldn't help it, she snorted a small laugh. "I'll move somewhere else." She offered dryly.

"No, too late for that. I'd have to follow you and that would be even more work." He scowled as if the word tasted bad. "So are you gonna talk to me or should I just go get your sister?"

Gaara weighed the two options. She certainly didn't want to discuss the subject with Temari. The redhead didn't much care what Shikamaru thought of her and she knew he was ridiculously smart. Maybe he'd see something in the situation that she couldn't. 'It can't really make me feel worse I guess...'

"I nearly killed Hinata today." She stated flatly.

Dark eyes blinked as he actually put forth the effort to look at her. That obviously wasn't what he had been expecting. "How?"

"I was angry."

"At Hinata?" The Nara heir raised an eyebrow, his tone skeptical.

"No. At...life." She frowned. "She walked up on me and I...she's okay but it was too close."

"You lost control." Shikamaru shrugged dismissively. "It happens to everyone."

"Not to me." She snapped sharply. "Not anymore." She added quietly.

"You've changed you know...and I'm not talking about the obvious." He gestured vaguely to her subtle feminine curves. "When you and your brother and sister showed up for the chunin exam, before the Sound invasion...you were terrifying, totally out of control. Even your own family was afraid to cross you. You didn't care who got hurt or killed as long as you got your way."

The redhead put her head back down on her knees. "You suck at this." She pointed out bitterly.

He smirked and rolled his eyes. "I know. Anyway, the point is you've come a long way from that...guy. I mean, look how upset you are about Hinata when you didn't even actually hurt her."

Gaara looked up at him thoughtfully but he was pointedly watching the clouds again.

"You care about the people around you now. That's why it's okay if you screw up sometimes, even if you get so angry you make a mistake...even if someone gets hurt. Welcome to the human race, Gaara." With that he stood and started down the stairs towards the street, hands shoved in his pockets.

Gaara remained where she was, thinking over his words and finding to her surprise that they actually helped a little.

* * *

She watched the sunset from her perch on the rooftop bench. She had finally regained some semblance of her usual composure but she had the uneasy feeling that she was never going to be able to lock her negative emotions away so completely again. There was too much danger that she'd explode and the wrong people would get hurt. She was going to have to face her emotions head on. Still, she'd done tougher things in her lifetime.

'Like face Temari and tell her what happened.' Except she hadn't actually done that yet. 'Best to get it over with.'

She stood and stretched the kinks from her muscles before starting across the rooftops towards her temporary home.

* * *

She arrived to find both her siblings in her apartment. Temari was cooking while Kankuro fiddled with a half finished trap.

"Hey." The blonde greeted with a grin. "Supper will be ready in a few. I'm trying to prove to our idiot brother that my cooking is just as good as yours."

"Hmph..." The hooded boy snorted derisively.

"I...need to talk to you." The redhead announced reluctantly.

Both her siblings were immediately wary. "About what?" Her brother asked, his project abandoned on the table. "Something happen?"

"Yes...almost..." She rubbed a hand over her face, feeling her carefully reconstructed control starting to fray. "I lost my temper." She admitted softly.

"Um...okay." Temari wasn't sure why that had the redhead so upset. True, a month earlier that would have been a scary thing to hear from her little sister's lips but, without the threat from the demon, the blonde didn't see what the big deal was.

"No...I lost my temper...like father." Gaara needed them to understand. She had to give them a chance to get away from her before she hurt them too. "I tried to kill Hinata."

"You...what?" Her sister stared in shock, unable to fathom any reason her sister would have been that angry at the friendly girl. "What did she do?"

"Nothing. I was angry. She showed up and I nearly crushed her with the sand coffin before I realized what I was doing. She's fine but...I lashed out at her for no reason except she was the closest target, the way he used to." The redhead looked away from her siblings' stricken expressions, expecting them to be disgusted with her.

So it surprised her when Kankuro came towards her and laid a hand on her arm awkwardly. "You are nothing like him." He said firmly. "Did you ever see him feeling guilty after he hurt someone?"

His words, so similar to what Shikamaru had told her earlier, struck a chord. She thought hard, but no matter how many events her mind conjured she couldn't remember her father ever showing any regret over the people he used to vent his anger towards.

She shook her head slowly.

"There, you see?" Temari smiled stiffly as she joined them. "Kuro's right. None of us are our father."

* * *

The hooded boy looked over at his older sister in surprise. She hadn't used that nickname for him since he was five. They were so close back then, helping each other train, playing together...he even remembered climbing into the older girl's bed for comfort after nightmares woke him when he was really little. Then their father had beaten the seven year old girl, broken her arm...for babying the younger boy. The old man claimed such affection would make him weak. After that, the pair was careful to keep their distance from each other, turning everything into a competition, arguing more and more until they could barely stand to be in the same room. That was about the time Kankuro started painting his face and covering his hair, unable to stand seeing his father's features reflected back at him in the eyes of everyone he met.

'If it wasn't for Gaara our entire family would have fallen apart by now.' He thought with some shock. He and Temari were barely on speaking terms by the time they were introduced to the volatile little redhead and told to act as a team. Suddenly, the two elder siblings had no choice but to band together to try and keep the youngest in check...and to simply survive the demon's outbursts. They were terrified of the demon boy they'd heard stories about for so long. Then, during the chunin exam, they finally got a glimpse of the lonely, betrayed child hiding behind the insanity. After they lost to Konoha and Naruto, Gaara was so broken, so confused.

Temari and Kankuro had been unable to protect each other from their vicious father. By unspoken agreement they had decided to save their youngest sibling from the world.

'We're still working on it I guess.' He mused sadly.

* * *

Gaara felt some of the weight lift from her shoulders but she still wasn't sure how she was going to deal with her anger issues.

Temari seemed to see the problem, well practiced at reading the redhead's silences. "We all got some of his temper, Sis." The admission pained the older girl but Gaara needed to hear it. "We'll help you with yours." She assured the smaller girl.

"You just gotta learn to...aim it better." Her brother offered with a slightly forced grin.

Aqua eyes blinked back moisture as her other recently released emotions tried to assert themselves but she shoved them back down. 'One thing at a time.' She told herself firmly. First she'd learn to deal with her temper, preferably before it could get the better of her again, the rest could wait.

"Thanks." She managed to push the single word past the lump in her throat.

Her sister ruffled her hair and her brother patted her arm, before turning to go back to his project.

"That's what family is for." The blonde grinned and went to rescue the now slightly charred stir fry she'd left cooking.

"You want to go grab take-out?" Kankuro suggested with a suppressed chuckle.

"It will taste fine once the sauce is on it, Kuro." Temari replied snappishly.

"Right. Whatever you say, Ri." He watched as his older sister hesitated at the pet name he had used for her when they were children. The message got across clearly, without their youngest sibling being aware of the undercurrent running through the conversation, he remembered too. Maybe they'd never go back to that closeness, but they didn't have to be at each others' throats either.

* * *

Gaara didn't show up at Naruto's apartment that night. She didn't want to see him disappointed in her. She knew she'd tell him what had happened the moment she saw him. Sleep was out of the question. Instead she sat at her desk with her head in her hands, trying to take Hinata's advice to figure out if any of her emotions besides anger were strong enough to create the effect she had managed that morning.

Around midnight a knock on her window pulled her from her unproductive musings. She knew who it was without even looking up but she looked anyway. Naruto stood on her little balcony, between the pair of potted cacti she had brought from her old chambers in Suna. Despite her misgivings, she went to let him in, not meeting his eyes as she opened the glass.

His arms wrapped around her and she stiffened for a moment before leaning against him, unable to resist the comfort after her difficult day.

"Hinata stopped by my place this afternoon." The leaf genin told her gently. "You okay?"

The redhead took a long moment before she answered. "I will be."

* * *

To be continued...

Author's Note: So yay! Gaara is making progress towards getting her strength back. Now if only she had some control over it. Next chapter...no, I'm not going to spoil the fun. lol. Review and I'll let you guys read it. That isn't a ransom demand, it is simply a request for incentive to edit the next chapter faster...yes, I'm not evil at all. By the way, thanks everyone for the supportive comments about my home situation. It is always nice to know people care. *hugs*


	14. Chapter 14: Spying and Sand Scultures

Author's Note: Here you go! Shiny chapter for all my lovely reviewers.

Sandstorms and Falling Leaves

Chapter Fourteen: Spying and Sand Sculptures

* * *

If Temari was surprised to see the leaf ninja sitting in her kitchen the next morning, she hid it well. Either that or she was too tired to question it.

"Morning." The hyperactive teen greeted her a little sheepishly.

"Uh huh." The older girl nodded and eyed him thoughtfully until he started to match her sister's flaming hair. "So you slept over last night, ne?"

"I...uh...I mean..." The flustered teen sputtered, not sure what the correct answer was in the situation.

"Yes. He did." Her sister put in evenly. "Now quit torturing him or I won't make you any pancakes."

Temari shut up. Gaara's pancakes were good.

Silence reigned in the small apartment until they were nearly done eating. With the threat of being left without breakfast neutralized, Temari grinned and decided to have a little fun.

"So when's the big day?" She asked with feigned nonchalance.

Naruto choked on his mouthful of syrup soaked breakfast treat and Gaara's eyes widened as she rounded on her sister.

"That's not funny." The pair blurted at the same moment.

"What...I wasn't kidding." Temari's grin belied her words. "You sleep in the same bed every night, you make out when you think no one's looking..."

Gaara managed an indignant noise and stormed out of the apartment, now doing her best impression of a tomato. Naruto was blushing as well but he also looked just a little bit thoughtful as he washed his food down without meeting the older blonde's eyes and hurried after the redhead to try and calm her down.

"Gaara! Wait up!"

Temari grinned. "That went well." She announced to the empty apartment. With a bounce in her step she set about gathering the dishes and taking them to the sink.

* * *

Naruto caught up to Gaara just as the redhead reached the ground floor. "Hey, don't let her get to you. You know she likes to push people's buttons." He caught her arm and pulled her to a stop. "What's wrong?"

"She said we...make out..." At his blank look she shook her head. "Naruto, my sister's been watching us...probably following us." She explained with a sigh. "And if she's watching us, you can be sure my brother is too. They don't trust me." She crossed her arms and glared at the ground in front of her feet as if it was the source of all her frustration.

"Gaara..." The blonde shook his head. "You don't get it at all, do you?" He asked slowly, her glare shifted to him and he hastened to explain. "It isn't you they don't trust. It's me." He laughed sharply. "They're just trying to look out for you. You...you're lucky you have people to worry about you like that." He finished softly.

The redhead's stormy expression smoothed out and her mouth opened in a soundless little 'o' as his words registered. Still, she didn't want her siblings treating her like a helpless china doll either.

"Well...they still shouldn't be spying on us." She let it go though. Her siblings had been overprotective of her for years and she didn't know why she thought things should be different now.

"I know but they mean well." The leaf genin relaxed as he saw her demeanor change. "So, can I walk you to meet Hinata?"

She hesitated, not sure the blue haired girl would even show up after the near disaster the previous morning. Still, she didn't want to be apart from Naruto yet so she found herself nodding.

"Let's go then." The blonde bounced along, starting into an account of his training with Kakashi and some guy she had never heard of whose job was apparently to make sure the nine tailed fox didn't take over his body and terrorize the village.

Gaara followed more calmly but he never strayed more than a step or two from her side as they walked, despite his faster pace. He stopped frequently to animate his story with gestures and imitations. The redhead found herself smiling slightly at his antics, all her worry pushed aside for the moment.

* * *

Gaara was pleasantly surprised to find Hinata already waiting at the new training ground they had agreed upon the day before. It was a larger clearing than the previous one and it was a good mile outside the village proper. No danger of a poorly aimed jutsu knocking a hole in Konoha's wall.

The quiet girl greeted her with a smile and jumped up from the rock she had been using for a seat while she waited.

"Gaara...and...um...hey Naruto." The Hyuuga heiress wasn't entirely comfortable around the jinchuriki. She had let go of her crush, but knowing that he now knew she had had one made her feel very self-conscious around him.

"Hey Hinata." The blonde greeted the Hyuuga heiress warmly, oblivious to her discomfort.

Gaara wasn't so oblivious. "I'll see you tonight, Naruto." She told him as she turned him back the way they had come.

"Yeah, okay." He leaned in and gently kissed her cheek before blushing and darting away.

Hinata seemed oddly amused as the redhead turned back to her, a soft look on Gaara's face that only the blonde jinchuriki seemed able to cause.

"What?" Gaara snapped defensively, a blush staining her pale skin.

"Nothing." The violet eyed teen said quickly, though her smile grew wider. "Okay, did you come up with any ideas?"

"Not really." The sand ninja hedged, not about to admit she had been distracted by Naruto's arrival in her room when she failed to show up at his.

"Well...maybe we can work on figuring out why being angry let you reach that second chakra network."

'If you'd ever had a voice in your head telling you to kill everything in sight, you wouldn't need to ask that question.' The redhead thought sourly. Out loud she merely acknowledged flatly. "I used to be an angry person."

"Yeah, I remember...but you got control of that without losing access to your chakra." The leaf chunin pointed out.

"True."

"Why don't we see if what happened yesterday left any lasting effects?" Hinata suggested.

The redhead raised an eyebrow.

"I mean...try doing something and I'll see if there are any changes in your chakra systems." The blue haired teen clarified.

"Ah...okay."

She started small, grinding stones into sand and building a pile at her feet, then she moved on to actively manipulating the sand making the ball bigger as she went. She molded it into increasingly complex shapes and patterns in the air and Hinata actually got so distracted watching the sand dancing around the redhead, she didn't notice the wielder's chakra levels dipping dangerously low until it was too late.

It felt good to simply play with the sand the way she used to and Gaara ignored the warning signs of chakra exhaustion, pushing herself to reach the rest of the stored chakra within her. By the time she realized it wasn't going to work, the sand was already raining down around her as blackness encroached on her vision. She was unconscious before she hit the ground.

Gaara came to with Hinata leaning over her, concern clearly written on the leaf girl's features.

"That might not have been a good idea." The exiled Kazekage admitted as she sat up slowly.

"No...well, it did show you are a lot stronger than you were when you got to Konoha." The blue haired girl tried to be encouraging.

"Not enough."

They sat in silence for a few minutes, letting the redhead recover.

"Hmm...you know...it's kind of strange." Hinata started hesitantly. "The way the sand reacts to you...it isn't like most ninja jutsus. You don't even use traditional hand signs most of the time." Violet eyes were watching to see if she had offended her friend. "I would have thought that your ability to control sand that way...basically with just your thoughts...would be gone with the one tail." She finished softly, not sure how touchy a subject she might be stepping into.

"I know." Gaara said simply. "I can't explain it. I can just...feel it...the sand...and most types of earth in general actually. I'm just more comfortable with sand than with rocks or other dirt." She reached out and scooped up a handful of the fine grains she had been using before she passed out, letting them sift through her fingers. "Even as weak as my chakra is now, I could still feel into the earth below us for hundreds of feet with a little bit of effort, I could tell you where every stone in this clearing is with my eyes closed, and I know you have sand in your hair from when you tried to catch me a minute ago." She finished quietly, not sure why she was telling Hinata so much.

She did not discuss these things with anyone, not even her siblings, not even Naruto. Her relationship with the sand, it was personal, it was just hers...and she knew it was unusual. The desert sand was her only playmate as a child and she had grown to view it as a living thing all its own. It was only as she got older that she realized that it wasn't a view shared by most other people. That she was alone in the way her skin tingled when there was a rockslide in the pass to Sunagakure, the way she knew whenever a sandstorm was brewing well before the alarms sounded.

The blue haired ninja listened curiously. She had never heard of anyone that in tune with one of the elements.

"I guess Shukaku did more than remodel my chakra system when he moved in." The redhead shrugged one shoulder dismissively.

"That's amazing, Gaara." Hinata blurted. "I've never heard of anything quite like it.

"Hn...maybe, but I'm still not sure it's worth the price."

"Oh...no, I guess maybe not." The blue haired ninja looked sheepishly down at her hands.

"Don't tell anyone what I just told you. Please." She tacked on the politeness, remembering belatedly that she couldn't actually order the leaf ninja to do anything.

"Of course not." The girl looked shocked at the idea.

"Thanks." The redhead pushed herself to her feet, feeling better now that she had taken a few minutes to rest. "Let's try again."

"Are you sure?" The blue haired chunin eyed her friend, uncertainty clear on her expressive features. At the redhead's mildly exasperated glare she relented. "Okay but let's keep things on a smaller scale this time okay?"

The redhead nodded and scooped up a handful of sand. She let it sift through her fingers but caught it in her jutsu before it could reach the ground and began to trace simple shapes in front of her. Details emerged as she got bored, until she was sculpting faces in the air. Temari, Kankuro, Naruto, Matsuri, the Nara boy with a pineapple stuck to the top of his head instead of hair.

Hinata giggled at that, though she covered her mouth to stifle it. Shikamaru was her friend after all.

The heavyset boy, Choji, came next, a sand potato chip shoved halfway into his mouth. Shino followed, then his mother, before the sand face went blank and new features emerged many of which were unfamiliar to the Konoha native. Chiho, Baki, Shinta, Sena, a slew of council members, the previous Kazekage's, even including her father though she banished his image quicker than the others.

Finally she could feel herself growing dizzy and she let the sand fall before she overdid it again. She looked to the dark haired teen for confirmation of what she already knew.

"I didn't see any reaction from Shukaku's chakra system." Hinata told her, disappointed.

Gaara nodded. She hadn't felt anything like the rush of energy she'd gotten the previous morning.

"We'll figure this out." The leaf chunin told her friend firmly.

"I hope so." The redhead agreed tiredly before turning to walk home. It was nearly nightfall and her sister would be expecting her for dinner.

"See you tomorrow?"

"Yes." It wasn't like she had a village to run or anything, and at this rate it was looking less than likely that she ever would again.

* * *

Gaara arrived at her apartment still stewing over the day's failure. She had her hand on the door to enter when a leaf ninja poofed into view beside her and knelt.

"Kazekage Gaara. The honorable fifth Hokage Tsunade-sama requests your presence this evening for a meeting." The messenger announced professionally.

Gaara nodded perfunctorily.

"Temari and Kankuro of Suna are also welcome though their presence is not required."

"When?"

"Two hours from now."

"Very well." She dismissed the messenger with a wave of her hand and he vanished back into the shadows from which he had appeared.

The weary redhead moved into her apartment and greeted her sister with a nod. "We've been asked to meet with the Hokage this evening. Kankuro too, if he can be found." She announced flatly.

"He should be in his apartment. He said something about working on a new puppet." The blonde gestured vaguely, taking the news in stride.

"I'll go let him know."

"Sure and tell him he can join us for dinner if he keeps his trap shut about my cooking."

The redhead nodded and wandered down the corridor to the apartment shared by Kankuro and Shinta. She knocked twice and then stepped back to wait.

Shinta opened the door a minute later, looking harried. He bowed hastily when he saw who was waiting. "Kazekage-sama. What can I do for you?"

"Is my brother here?"

"Yes Gaara-sama. I'll get him for you."

The Sand chunin darted towards the back of the apartment and the ex-jinchuriki heard him knocking loudly on one of the interior doors. A whispered conversation followed and then her brother emerged, pulling up his hood as he wandered towards her.

"Hey, Little Sis. What do you need?" The black clad teen asked curiously.

"We've been invited to meet with the Hokage tonight." She informed him evenly. "Also, you are invited to share dinner with Temari and I, provided you can suffer through our sister's cooking in silence."

He laughed. "So, you at least admit it is suffering."

The younger teen shrugged but the tiniest hint of a smile played at the edges of her mouth.

"Sure, let me just put some things away." He turned away before seeming to remember his manners. "You want to come in?"

Gaara stepped inside, looking around at the apartment. It was much like her own, but as she followed her brother to the back bedroom and looked inside, there was no doubt who lived there. He had brought his puppet workshop with him, she knew that. The tools of his trade had made up over half of the supplies they'd brought with them from Sunagakure. She just didn't expect him to have let his work take over his entire bedroom. There was a bed shoved into the corner, half buried in disconnected puppet limbs, but the rest of the room showed no sign that anyone actually slept there.

Her brother was efficiently packing away a half completed puppet and sorting his tools back into the correct slots in the cases he used to store them. Finally, he turned to her, seeming surprised that she had actually followed him further than the living room but shrugging it off and smiling toothily.

"Okay, I'm ready to face whatever horror Ri is trying to pass off as food tonight."

"It didn't look bad when I left." The redhead offered with a touch of hope.

"Yeah, well she can do a lot of damage in just a few minutes."

The meal wasn't bad, for Temari. The noodles were only a little overcooked and the vegetables were okay with a little salt. The meat was chewy and charred but they'd all eaten worse, so it passed with only one small comment from Kankuro. A comment he hastily took back when his older sister reached for the frying pan.

* * *

The three Suna ninjas arrived at the Hokage's offices a few minutes early but Shizune showed them right in.

"Gaara." The buxom blonde greeted the petite redhead warmly. "Good to see you. How are things going?"

"Fine."

The older woman sighed, she should have known this would be like pulling teeth...from a dragon. "Right, skip the small talk. I get it." She leaned forward and gestured for the trio to sit. "As I'm sure you know, your presence here is an open secret. We thought the village's heavy security would be enough to keep your enemies at bay but obviously that isn't going to work."

The exiled Kazekage nodded. "The assassin."

"Exactly. He may have been just the first of many." She leaned back in her chair and stretched before continuing. "The way I see it, we have two choices." She held up her hand and ticked the options off on her fingers. "Either you hide better, which it may be too late for, or you make a show of strength that will make them think twice about coming after you for a while."

"Hiding has never been my way. What sort of demonstration did you have in mind?" The redhead asked curiously, though her face betrayed little of what she was thinking.

"The chunin exam finals are just a few weeks away. It would make quite a statement for you to join me in your rightful place as a Kage."

"But at the moment I hold no actual power."

"That's debatable. Regardless, it would show the world you aren't afraid, and that would lead them to question why you might be so confident." The older woman let the redhead ponder the idea for a moment. "It might make them hesitate to come after you so blatantly."

Gaara thought it over. "It could also be a perfect opportunity for someone to make an attempt on my life." She pointed out slowly.

"True, it isn't without risk, but you'll be guarded by the same security that has been arranged for me and I can assure you I feel perfectly safe."

"It would be sort of symbolic too." Temari put in suddenly. "As a sign of the strength of the alliance between our villages, it would serve very well."

The redhead conceded her sister's point with a nod. "The question then, is how will the council take it?"

"Forget them." Her brother growled. "They won't raise a hand against you, they don't dare."

This was news to the sand user. "Why?"

The hooded boy looked exasperated for a moment, like she was missing something obvious. "You're a freaking hero, Sis. You saved the village, you nearly died doing so." He glossed over the fact that she had actually been dead, preferring not to think about it. "Not only that, Sunagakure has never been as prosperous or as secure as it is since you took office. The people of Suna love you."

Temari was nodding in agreement. "That's why the council couldn't depose you outright, and I'm sure they wanted to. The only real chance they might have at replacing you, without causing an uprising, would be if they could convince Kuro to take your place." She jerked a thumb in their brother's direction. "At least then they'd have the laws to fall back on."

"Never happening." The hooded teen snorted, looking rather nauseous at the thought. He'd make a lousy Kazekage and he knew it. He didn't want that kind of responsibility and he'd eat Crow before he'd let himself be the council's puppet.

"See?" The ponytailed blonde shrugged. "Things have changed a lot in the last few years. You've just been working too hard to notice." She grinned and patted the smaller girl's shoulder.

"I...oh." The redhead absorbed all the information slowly. "I need time to decide." She said finally, turning her attention to the bemused Hokage, who had been watching them with a small smirk.

"Sure. Just let me know what you want to do." Tsunade stood and came around her desk. "On a more personal note, I thought you should know that word has gotten back to Sunagakure about your relationship with Naruto. Don't ask me how I know. I don't think your council has all the details but...be careful, okay kid?"

Gaara nodded slowly. It was unsettling news. She wondered if Tsunade herself knew all the details of her relationship with the hyperactive blonde jinchuriki. 'Hopefully not.'

With that small warning, the older woman showed her guests out and went back to her desk. "I'm getting too old for politics." She mumbled sourly, before reaching for the bottle of sake she kept hidden in her bottom drawer for emergencies.

* * *

Naruto lay sprawled on the training field, exhausted from attempting to master his wind chakra. He seriously considered sleeping right there, but the thought of Gaara snuggled in his arms had him lurching unsteadily to his feet. He swayed for a minute but managed to maintain his footing.

Kakashi eyed his most unusual student curiously. He had been expecting the teen to sleep where he fell, but the blonde seemed to have other ideas. "Going somewhere?" He asked dryly as the boy took a few steps before stumbling to his knees.

"I have to go home." The stubborn teen insisted, pushing himself to his feet again. This time he made it to a tree, which he leaned on heavily as he pondered how far away his apartment seemed at that moment.

"Why? Is the ground not comfortable enough? You'll be back first thing in the morning anyway."

"I have to sleep at home." Blue eyes bored into an amused dark one.

Kakashi sighed and pushed away from the tree he had been holding up for the better part of the day. "Okay, come on." He grabbed the tired teen and began to more or less drag him towards the village.

Naruto protested loudly at first, but gave it up when the jonin threatened to drop him and let him see how long it took him to get back on his own. The blonde simply hoped Gaara wouldn't be at his apartment yet.

Kakashi dropped the exhausted jinchuriki off at his door and walked away, but his interest was piqued. He doubled back as soon he was out of sight and watched to see what was so important that the knucklehead had actually let himself be dragged home like a ragdoll.

The nosy man wasn't disappointed. About ten minutes after he set up his surveillance, he watched a cloaked figure duck in through the leaf genin's newly opened window. 'That's his bedroom.' Kakashi hadn't seen the visitor's face but he didn't need to. Just for an instant, as the wary person had looked around before entering the dark bedroom, the jonin had caught a glimpse of unmistakable crimson hair.

'What is Gaara doing sneaking into Naruto's bedroom at this hour of night?' The silver haired man pondered, having several ideas that would have made Jiraiya proud. 'Huh...didn't know the kid had it in him.' The jonin stuck his hands in his pockets and headed towards his own home, curiosity satisfied for the time being.

* * *

To Be Continued...

Author's Note: Uh oh! What is Suna's council going to do? What is Kakashi going to do with his (mis)information? Will Gaara make a stand at the chunin exam finals? All these are questions that will be answered in the chapters to come. Please review!


	15. Chapter 15: Robes and Pants

Author's Note: Sorry for the wait. It has been a busy week. I hope you like this. It isn't what I intended chapter 15 to be but this popped into my head and demanded to be written instead. I promise 16 is in the works. This is just to tide you all over in the meantime.

Sandstorms and Falling Leaves

Chapter Fifteen: Robes and Pants

If Naruto noticed that Gaara suddenly always wore her cloak when she snuck into his room, he didn't think much about it. The redhead was relieved not to have to explain. She was afraid he might say she needed to stop sleeping over, for the sake of her reputation.

She would protect her reputation. It was none of his concern.

* * *

The redhead had written to Baki as soon as she and her siblings had arrived home from their meeting with the Hokage. Her letter asked if the council was trying to stir up any rumors about her and also requested his opinion on Tsunade's plan to show unity and strength at the chunin exam.

It had been nearly a week and she was expecting a reply any day. She didn't expect the package that was delivered by a breathless Suna ninja as she was training with Hinata one afternoon.

"Kazekage-sama." The young woman knelt in respect and held out the large package.

Gaara noticed a scroll tied to the top of the box and took it first.

'_Kazekage Gaara,_

_I have heard only that you have been seen spending a great deal of time with Konoha's jinchuriki and that you seem to be very close to each other. It is suspected that you are romantically involved with him but that is purely speculation at this point. _

_As for the other matter, I believe you forgot some things when you left Sunagakure. I have rectified this small oversight for you. I believe my answer will be apparent when you see them._

_Sincerely,_

_Baki_

_Jonin of Sunagakure'_

The redhead turned her attention to the box, still held out by the dark haired Sand ninja. She cut the cord holding the lid on, with a kunai, and then lifted it off slowly. Inside were her Kazekage robes.

She replaced the lid and took the box from the messenger. "Well done. Rest in Konoha for tonight and return to Sunagakure in the morning...and tell Baki that I got his message. Dismissed."

The dark haired Suna ninja nodded sharply and vanished.

* * *

Hinata stood back and watched the brief exchange. It was interesting to see how different the redhead was with her subordinates. The messenger ninja had been deferent and her eyes had shown with pride as she addressed the young Kazekage. The redhead had commanded the woman's respect without even trying.

'It's nothing like the way she interacts with her siblings or anyone from Konoha. Though I guess her brother and sister are her subordinates too...but she doesn't command them like that.' The Hyuuga heiress pondered the quiet Suna ninja thoughtfully. 'It's easy to forget sometimes that she's the Kazekage. She treats me like an equal.' Hinata felt a flush of pride at that knowledge and wondered if the redhead had any idea how much their friendship had come to mean to her. 'Probably not.'

* * *

Gaara had taken the top off the box again, and was touching the heavy fabric almost reverently. Baki's message was perfectly clear. He wanted her to show the council she was still the Kazekage. He certainly didn't want the job. It was part of why she had picked him to serve in her absence.

Baki preferred to fight his battles in the field, rather than behind a desk. Oddly, though she enjoyed a good even fight every now and then, Gaara had found she had a knack for politics and a level of patience for desk work that both her siblings found disturbing. It was soothing to deal with forms all day, and it was far easier to relate to people from a professional standpoint rather than a personal one. It also gave her something to protect, a focus outside of herself that she had desperately needed when it first occurred to her to take the job.

She thought back to her rather unorthodox rise to power. The council had actually been trying to pressure Kankuro to take their father's place for some time before Temari suggested Gaara do it instead. The blonde had been mostly joking, at the time half the villagers in Suna still made signs to ward off evil when the redhead passed by. It had gotten Gaara thinking though, with Shukaku mostly under control and Matsuri beginning her genin career, the redhead had had little to occupy the long hours of Suna's days and nights. After a week of mulling the idea over, Gaara had simply gone before the council with Temari and Kankuro in tow and informed Suna's flustered elite that the position of Kazekage had been filled. They had barely protested, too afraid of the demon.

Gaara smirked at the memory. She had planned to try to win the council's support that day, had a whole slew of arguments already mapped out in her mind. Instead, it had been their ingrained fear of Shukaku that got her the position of Kazekage. None of her words then would have mattered in light of what the council thought the redhead was, an unstoppable monster.

'And now, it doesn't matter to them that I was a good leader for Suna. It only matters that I'm female...and without Shukaku I'm no longer a threat in their eyes.' She smoothed out a wrinkle in the sturdy fabric she was still eying. 'I think it may be time they were shown otherwise.'

Hinata cleared her throat and the redhead hastily closed the box before turning to her friend.

"Are we going to train any more today?" The blue haired girl asked with a raised eyebrow that would have looked more at home on Kiba.

"I need to take this back to my apartment first." Gaara said slowly. "It would not do for these robes to get stolen. Not with so many foreign ninjas around."

Hinata nodded. "Of course. May I walk with you?"

The redhead blinked, the Hyuuga girl had never asked to see where she lived before. Still, she didn't see the harm in it so she nodded agreeably.

* * *

Hinata didn't know exactly what she had been expecting Gaara's living quarters to look like, but the modest apartment didn't fit the mental image she had conjured. She followed the redhead through the sparsely furnished living room and down the narrow hallway.

Gaara pushed open the door to her room and the blue haired ninja trailed after her as she went to a chest at the foot of her bed. The Suna ninja knelt and carefully stored the blue and white robes inside the battered chest, covering them with other clothes. She would hide them better later but this would do for the moment.

Hinata wandered around the room, noting the carefully made bed and the desk strewn with half finished missives and writing utensils. She peered out the window and smiled at the two cacti soaking up sunlight on the tiny balcony. They were the only personal touches in the redhead's room. Just then, something hanging on the footboard of the bed caught the Hyuuga girl's keen eyes.

Something orange...something Hinata would recognize anywhere.

'How did Naruto-kun's pants end up in Gaara's room? Unless...' The shy girl turned crimson at the turn her thoughts had taken.

"There. We can go now." Gaara announced, standing and brushing dust off her pants. She looked up when her words failed to produce a response from the other girl. "Hinata...is something wrong?"

"I...um...no!" The flustered teen finally managed to squeak out, shaking her head vigorously to dislodge the suspicions that had settled there. "Let's go."

* * *

Gaara slipped through Naruto's window that night with a parcel crudely wrapped in brown paper. "Here."

"Oh cool! How did you get them clean? I thought they were ruined." The blonde asked as he looked over the orange fabric, noting the carefully mended hole where the shrapnel had caught him in the leg.

"I have...substantial experience with blood stains." The redhead pointed out, sounding slightly uncomfortable with the admission.

Naruto blinked as he realized what she was talking about, but soon his smile returned in full force. "Well, I can't thank you enough for salvaging these for me. With Tsunade-baachan cutting me out of the mission roster until I make chunin, money is a little tight right now."

"It was nothing." Gaara shrugged one shoulder awkwardly. "I'd do the same thing for Temari and Kankuro if they asked." She didn't point out that her siblings never wore anything as impractical as orange pants. Getting that blood out of the bright fabric had taken over an hour, and the careful mending was a favor she now owed Kankuro, since she couldn't sew to save her life. She just knew she'd regret it when he called it in.

Still, as Naruto leaned in and kissed her gently, she suddenly felt it was well worth the trouble.

* * *

To Be Continued...

Author's Note: Super short chapter and mostly fluff, but this little idea wouldn't leave me alone and it doesn't really go with what I'm doing in the next chapter. So you get it as a little bonus to tide you over until I get that one done. I'll try to be quick about it. Please review! It feeds my creativity.


	16. Chapter Sixteen: Pass or Fail

Author's Notes: SO Sorry for the wait. I've been stuck on these fights for ages. I've also been really busy with real life and haven't had much time for writing. Still, I am not giving up on this story and I hope you all won't either. Thanks for reading and reviewing. It inspires me. Oh, and this is not betaed and barely proofread because I didn't want to make you all wait any longer, so please let me know if you find any mistakes. Thanks.

Sandstorms and Falling Leaves

Chapter 16: Pass or Fail

Gaara woke well before the sun hit Naruto's narrow window. She attempted to disentangle herself from her bedmate's arms but the blonde teen smoothly thwarted her every attempt to leave the small mattress. The redhead finally sighed and gave up, allowing the jinchuriki to draw her back into his embrace.

"I should go." She insisted, though it lacked conviction since she made no move to escape his grasp again. "The patrols have been doubled and there are many more people in the village now. It is harder to move undetected in daylight."

"I know." The grinning leaf ninja agreed. "I just wanted to wish you luck today."

"Why?" Dark-rimmed eyes narrowed in confusion. "You are the one taking the exam..."

"Yeah, but you're the one standing up to Suna's council...not to mention hanging out with Tsunade-baachan all day." He grinned again. "Trust me, you need all the luck you can get."

"I'll be sure to tell her you said so." The young Kazekage deadpanned.

"Er...I'd rather you...um...didn't do that..."

Mischief lingered in aqua colored eyes as Gaara leaned close to the blonde. "Then maybe you should let me go."

The jinchuriki sighed dramatically as he released his hold on her slim waist. "Alright, but I don't have to like it."

The sand ninja placed a chaste kiss on his lips before extricating herself from the bed and grabbing her coat and shoes. She paused before opening the window.

"Good luck, Naruto. I love you. Be careful." She blushed and darted out the window before he could respond.

"Love you too." He said with a small smile. Gaara didn't often use words to show her feelings; for that matter, she still had trouble showing feelings at all most of the time. Still, when they were alone she made the effort to reach out to him and he treasured every minute of it.

"Too bad it can't stay this way forever." He mused as he rose and hurried to dress for the day.

* * *

The day of the chunin exam finals dawned bright and clear. Dignitaries and high-ranking ninjas from all over the world packed the bleachers and boxes in the massive arena. Gaara peered through the curtains at the growing crowd for the fourth time in ten minutes. Tsunade kept count, amused at the small sign of nervousness from the otherwise stoic young woman. The two kages were waiting in a small room just off the dais from which they would watch the matches. It was safer to minimize the amount of time they would be exposed to possible attack.

Tsunade also insisted on making a grand entrance, dragging Gaara into the pomp and ceremony by default, since it would not do for the visiting Kage to be seated before her host had arrived.

"It's almost time." The older woman stood and brushed a hand half-heartedly at a wrinkle in her heavy robe. "You ready to do this?"

The redhead nodded solemnly, not needing to check her own robes for wrinkles because she had not actually sat down since she donned them hours before. She settled her hat on her head and nodded once more to the tall blonde. "Ready."

Tsunade heard the signal for her entrance and grabbed her own hat, waving it in one hand as she pushed through the hanging curtains onto the dais to meet the cheers of her village and guests.

"Welcome!" She grinned. "Konoha is honored by our many guests. Please allow me to introduce another, the esteemed Fifth Kazekage, Gaara of Sunagakure."

Gaara stepped out onto the dais, her face easily slipping into the calm mask she used in her professional life. She bowed slightly to the smiling Hokage and then moved to take her place on the ornate seat that had been provided for her. As she sat down, she removed her hat and hung it on the back of the chair. Not only did the move allow everyone in the arena to see her more clearly, thus proving her identity to any doubters, Tsunade had also pointed out that it would help to push away memories of the last time a Kazekage had sat in on the exams in Konoha. The redhead was uncertain that was the case, since she had played a large and unpleasant role in those ill-fated exams, but it did serve to show the ninja world that she wasn't hiding so she let the older blonde's logic stand.

Taking her seat, she easily spotted several discreet Anbu lurking around them, out of sight of the crowd below, and her own security team was scattered within easy reach of the dais as well. She felt suffocatingly secure as she turned her attention towards the arena floor where the proctor had just stepped into view. She noted without surprise that it was Nara's large friend and teammate, Choji. Charged with planning the exams, the brilliant young strategist had obviously opted to place only people he knew he could trust as proctors for the latter, more dangerous, stages of the exam. It made sense that he had chosen his own long time squad mates.

The large teen was speaking but Gaara was more concerned with the group of hopeful genins that had just entered the arena. Naruto was practically bouncing with suppressed energy, eager to get to his first match. Matsuri was outwardly calm, though one hand toyed with the hem of her skirt, a nervous habit Gaara had tried hard to train out of the younger sand ninja. Naruto spotted her just then and waved gleefully, elbowing the young Suna ninja until she sheepishly waved as well. The sight brought a slight smile to the redhead's harsh features and she raised her hand to acknowledge the greeting.

The first round of matches was announced: Naruto would fight third against a Grass ninja named Monjobu, Matsuri would fight fifth against a Stone ninja named Kaori, and their older teammate was to fight the last match against a heavyset ninja from the village in the waves who was known as Tsunami. No other squads from Suna or Konoha had passed the first two segments of the exams.

Gaara watched the first two fights clinically, gauging how well the winners would fare against her student or her...Naruto. The first winner was a young Stone ninja. He was deceptively small and unassuming, perfect for making an opponent underestimate one's strength. The second victor was a heavily muscled woman from the village hidden in the grass.

* * *

Naruto bounced from one side of the competitors waiting area he had been assigned, to the other. This year, Shikamaru had opted to keep the competitors separate, and a little further from the arena itself so those waiting had no view of the fights until it was their turn. Then the victors were shuffled back to their waiting room until the next round of fights. The official story was that it would make the later rounds more interesting if the genins didn't get to see each other's techniques or size each other up before the fights, but Manabu had told them he suspected it was also a security measure to keep the foreign ninjas from being able to easily coordinate an attack, as they had during Naruto's previous exam. It was probably a good idea for both reasons but it didn't make the long minutes of waiting any easier for the hyperactive jinchuriki.

Finally, it was Naruto's turn and he followed a wolf-masked anbu guide through the passageways leading to the packed arena with a steady stream of one-sided chatter the orange clad jinchuriki entered the stadium grinning and waving at the crowd confidently. He waved especially hard when he turned toward the Kages' lofty seats. Then his attention was drawn to his opponent, as the tall thin man entered the arena and bowed gracefully to the crowd.

Chobi stepped out and grinned, his mouth momentarily free of food. "Third Fight! Naruto Uzumaki and Monjobu Shirakawa! Begin!" The large teen swiftly left the arena.

Naruto took a minute to size up his opponent as the man seemed to be doing the same with him. Monjobu was about six and a half feet tall and didn't look like he weighed much more than Naruto himself. He carried several visible weapons, including multiple kunai, a large shuriken, and a wicked looking pair of sickle shaped swords. He wore a long coat that added a flowing effect to every move he made, intended no doubt to confuse his attacker into missing his slender figure and hitting the fabric instead.

Monjobu finished his assessment first and scoffed. "Well, this shouldn't take long." He said with displeased look on his sharp face.

"What's that supposed to mean?" Naruto frowned, unsure if he should be insulted or not.

"It means, you aren't going to be a very good opponent to demonstrate my skills against." He rolled his eyes.

Naruto's frown turned into a smirk. "Yeah? Well, let's see about that, ne?"

The reed thin grass ninja shrugged and pulled out his swords obligingly but when he swung the sharp blades at the blonde's throat, Naruto vanished in a puff of smoke. Ten more Narutos suddenly appeared from various points around the arena, where they had been disguised as various objects.

Monjobu had only a moment to register the shock before the first of the shadow clones was upon him. Naruto hurried to create more clones as those were dispelled, keeping the thin ninja distracted. There were a few seconds of frantic action as the many Narutos threw punches and kicks in rapid succession, before all but one of the clones vanished in a puff of smoke. That clone was next to the real Naruto and the pair had been swiftly working up a jutsu while their opponent was distracted.

"Rasengan!" Naruto shouted, letting the clone disperse as he charged the grass ninja.

The compressed ball of chakra connected squarely with Monjobu's abdomen and his face contorted in shock as he was spun and thrown back across the spacious arena. He plowed into the ground fifty feet from where he had been standing, his swords flying away as he lost them in the tumultuous tumble.

Monjobu stood shakily, clutching his midsection and wincing as he regained his feet. "Perhaps...I may have underestimated you." He admitted with a cough.

Naruto grinned. "Yeah, happens all the time. You ready to keep going?" He asked, stretching and bouncing in place.

Monjobu's reply was a kunai thrown at the cocky leaf ninja's head.

Naruto pulled off a substitution jutsu at the last second and the kunai sank harmlessly into a log. Then he went on the offensive, darting through a barrage of flying blades as he neared his target. Finally he ducked low and slid past his opponent, flinging out a kunai and forcing the man to duck down to avoid the projectile. He recovered in time to send a kick at the leaf ninja's head but, when it connected, the orange clad teen turned to smoke once more.

Naruto rose up behind the now vulnerable and off balance grass ninja, kunai in hand. He grabbed the man in a vice-like hold and pressed the kunai to his throat to prevent him from struggling.

"Give up?" He asked with a grin.

The grass ninja scowled but nodded, conceding defeat.

Choji emerged from the edge of the arena, a half finished bag of chips dangling from one hand. "Naruto Uzumaki is our winner!" The portly young man grinned broadly at his old classmate as the genin released his prisoner and sheathed the kunai with a flourish.

The crowd cheered and Naruto practically floated out of the arena behind the masked anbu guard sent to escort him to the winners' waiting room.

* * *

Tsunade couldn't help but notice the small smile on the young kazekage's face as she watched the blonde leaf ninja win his bout. The Suna girl had risen to her feet during the match and even moved a couple of steps towards the edge of the dais in order to see better. It was then that the Hokage saw a small flaw in their plan to make the redhead so noticeable during the exams.

'You'd have to be blind not to notice how much she cares about him.' The older woman thought grimly. 'Those two might be in trouble once word about this gets around.'

Gaara was oblivious to her host's thoughts as she retook her seat once Naruto had moved out of sight. She was only thinking that he only had two more fights to win to guarantee he'd make chunin rank. While some ninja might be promoted from their performances in the final exams, the winner was definitely going to achieve chunin rank.

She barely paid attention to the fourth fight, but as the loser from that battle was dragged away unconscious she forced her mind back to the action in the arena. Matsuri was next.

As the younger girl entered the battle area, Gaara could not help but feel a swell of pride. She had taught other young ninjas in the last couple years, but Matsuri was the first. The girl took a chance on the redhead when no one else trusted that the jinchuriki had changed. The orphan girl was the first person in Suna to accept her as something other than a weapon, and without Matsuri's confidence and trust in those early days, Gaara wasn't honestly sure she would have ever have tried to be Kage.

When Gaara had failed to find any way to prove to the people Sunagakure that she was still human, Matsuri had done it for her. Every time the brown haired girl returned safely from a training trip or spoke proudly of her sensei's wisdom and patience, it made people begin to wonder if they had misjudged the jinchuriki.

Gaara had no doubt that Matsuri would win her match, but it did not stop her from standing and moving forward as the first blows were exchanged.

"She was your first student, ne?" Tsunade asked suddenly.

The Sand ninja nodded, never taking her eyes from the action below.

"Yeah, I remember that feeling." The older woman mused softly, a wistful smile in her words. "No matter how many others you train, you never forget the moment that first one leaves the nest."

Gaara nodded once at the wisdom in the older woman's words.

Below, Matsuri seemed to be faring poorly against the much more physically imposing stone ninja. The woman had to be easily two hundred pounds of pure muscle and her primary fighting style was aggressive in the extreme. She had pressed the petite Sand ninja all the way back to the wall of the arena and appeared to have her neatly trapped.

Just as the woman started to head butt the sand genin, Matsuri slipped gracefully under her guard and rolled through her wide set feet. She had her rope dart out in an instant and it moved like an extension of her arm, entangling the Stone ninja's feet and turning her head butt into a headlong tumble into an unforgiving stone wall.

The larger woman lay stunned on the ground and the brunette wasted no time in securing her more tightly with the rope of her favorite weapon.

Choji appeared when it became apparent the prone woman had no hope of getting loose any time soon. "The winner of this round is Matsuri of Sunagakure!"

Matsuri grinned and turned to the stands, seeking out the redhead with ease. She bowed to her old sensei with great respect.

Gaara bowed back slightly a smile now playing at one corner of her mouth and around her dark rimmed eyes.

* * *

The final match was of less interest to the redhead but Manabu gave a good showing and his probability genjutsu had his enemy guessing for several minutes but in the end he was thrown halfway across the arena by the rolling wave of flesh that was Tsunami. He lay still as the medical ninjas rushed out and carried him away.

Choji stepped out and announced the final winner. Then the six remaining chunin hopefuls filed back into the arena before the portly young man read off the matches for the next round. "Shimako versus Ryouga, Naruto versus Kairi, and Matsuri versus Tsunami. All competitors not involved in the first fight are to move to the waiting area now!"

* * *

Naruto roamed the waiting area like a caged monkey, unable to contain his nervous energy. He pondered possible jutsus to use in the upcoming fight. Despite his long hours of training with Kakashi and Yamato, he hadn't yet managed to master his wind chakra enough to make it a feasible weapon.

"Oh well, I guess I'll just have to beat them the old fashioned way." He told himself firmly. At least he had the skills Jiraiya had taught him as well as his own techniques.

The minutes crawled as he waited for the first fight to finish. He idly wondered what they were going to do for the next round since they'd have an uneven number of finalists but gave up on the thought quickly. First he needed to focus on the fight at hand. The rest would sort itself out soon enough.

After what seemed like hours, his wolf masked anbu came to lead him to the arena. Naruto took a steadying breath before he stepped out onto the battlefield. He was shocked by how much it had changed since the last round. Obviously the previous combatants had not held back in their battle. There were craters in the ground and several trees lay toppled or cut down that had been standing during his previous match.

"Ahem." A polite cough drew his mind back to the job he needed to do and he spun to face his petite opponent. The girl bowed cordially in greeting. "May this battle bring honor to us both, Uzumaki-san."

Naruto bowed back, careful never to take his eyes off her just in case she was trying to trick him somehow. "Yeah, good luck to you too, Kairi-san."

Without further conversation the pair burst into motion. Kairi became a mere blur of motion to the non-ninjas in the stands and Naruto seemed to simply vanish in a puff of smoke. By the time the young woman reached the place she thought he should be, the leaf ninja was nowhere in sight. Confused, the girl attempted to dispel the effect, thinking it might be genjutsu. However, that failed to make her opponent reappear. Cautiously, she moved across the arena. Searching for signs of a transformation jutsu or a hiding place.

Silently, Naruto slipped up behind the searching stone ninja but at the last moment, Kairi vaulted away from his grapple attempt.

Naruto grinned. "You're pretty good."

The girl nodded back. "You're not so bad yourself."

Naruto changed tactics, launching a straight forward series of melee attacks, all of which the other genin easily parried or blocked. She even got in a few blows of her own though nothing connected. The pair was pretty evenly matched at taijutsu. After a few heated moments of close combat, Naruto pulled back.

The stone ninja frowned in concentration and began a series of hand signs. Naruto tensed, unsure what kind of technique the girl could pull off. The earth beneath him began to tremble and he hurriedly took to the trees as cracks began to appear in the arena floor. Kairi then started launching large boulders at him in quick succession and the leaf ninja was forced to focus entirely on dodging for several minutes. By the time the stone ninja was out of ammunition, both of them were winded and sweating heavily.

'I can't let her do that again.' He thought tiredly. Sighing, he jumped down from the top of the last stone she had chucked at him. "I really didn't want to do this yet, but you've left me no choice."

The stone ninja was already making hand signs for another jutsu but Naruto bit his thumb and quickly summoned Gamatatsu.

"What now?" The toad demanded. "I was just about to have dinner."

"I'll get you four dozen juicy beetles if you can stop her from finishing that jutsu." The orange clad teen said quickly. "The crunchy ones you like."

Gamatatsu looked over at the girl and nodded. Kairi hurried to finish her hand signs, seeing the eager glint that had lit the large toad's eyes at the mention of food. However, it was no use. The creature launched his sticky tongue at her and caught her hands. She found herself jerked across the arena towards the massive toad and for a moment she thought he was going to eat her. She sighed in relief as the tongue stopped retracting while she was still a couple of feet from the beast and the grinning leaf ninja that commanded it.

She bowed her head. "I concede. Call off your creature."

Naruto let out whoop of victory and pumped his fist in the air. "All right Gamatatsu. You can go home now. I'll have those beetles for you tomorrow, okay?" The snack-loving toad nodded and disappeared with a poof of smoke. "Good fight, Kairi-san."

"You as well. Congratulations."

Choji appeared between them suddenly. "Winner: Naruto Uzumaki!"

The crowd cheered wildly and Gaara found herself standing at the edge of the dais once more. She calmly returned to her seat, avoiding Tsunade's eyes in the hopes that the woman wouldn't say anything about her vested interest in Naruto's success.

That hope was in vain. "So...just how serious are things between you and my self-proclaimed successor?" The older blond woman asked bluntly.

The redhead blushed slightly but otherwise remained outwardly calm, pondering how much to say.

Tsunade filled the silence after a few moments. "I mean...should I look forward to planning a wedding...or maybe a funeral if your brother has any say in the matter..."

Gaara blinked at the joke but decided to answer anyway. "Neither at the moment. I...I do not know if Naruto has considered marriage at this point."

"Ah...so you have considered it then?" The older woman prodded, reading between the lines of the redhead's statement.

"I...I don't think it is any of your concern, Tsunade-san." Gaara turned to face her host finally, her face smoothed of emotion. "You will certainly be one of the first to know if anything further develops from our relationship. I'm certain your network will keep you well informed."

Tsunade nodded amiably. "True, but this is more fun." She grinned and turned her attention back to the final match getting ready to begin.

Gaara was grateful the hokage had let the subject drop though she had the feeling it was a temporary reprieve. At least it allowed her to focus on Matsuri's upcoming match.

The young Suna genin and her much larger foe had entered the arena and were squaring off. Tsunami wasted no time in launching a half-hearted series of attacks, feeling out the smaller ninja's strength.

Matsuri dodged out of his reach easily, using her speed to overcome his longer reach and even landing a couple of blows to his stomach as she practically danced around him.

The pair broke apart to regroup and Tsunami grinned. "Excuse me if I make this quick. I've still got another fight to win today." With that he sat down and began to make a series of lightning fast hand signs.

Matsuri hurriedly tried to use her rope dart to entangle his hands and stop his ninjutsu but he used one leg to sweep the weapon away and kept signing. Finished, he leaning his head into his knees and began a chakra powered roll towards the brunette. Matsuri dodged quickly but a wash of water chakra still caught her and threw her to the ground, several yards from where she had been.

She struggled to her feet, coughing and looking around for her opponent.

"You know why they call me Tsunami?" She spun to face the huge man, kunai drawn. "Because if I don't smash you with the force of my attacks, you'll still drown." He was making more hand signs as he spoke.

Matsuri coughed again, her lungs struggling as the very water from the air condensed and poured itself down her throat and nose when she tried to breathe. She tried to hold her breath but it was too late. She couldn't stop the coughs that began to wrack her frame and every cough drew in more water than she managed to bring up. The young sand ninja could see black spots beginning to form at the edges of her vision and she fell to her hands and knees.

Still, the waves ninja did not relent.

Matsuri tried to concede the match but she had no breath to speak. She collapsed onto her stomach, and her only thought was that it was rather ironic for a desert dweller to die of drowning on dry land.

Suddenly, the onslaught of water stopped and the young sand ninja was able to finally cough up most of the liquid she'd been forced to inhale. She raised her head shakily, intending to thank Choji for stopping the match, only to find her opponent suspended several feet in the air...by a fist made of sand.

Gaara stood between the brunette and her now incapacitated opponent, hand upraised as the sand mirrored her movements.

"Enough." She spat harshly. "You've won."

"The brat..." The sand constricted around the large man alarmingly and he hastily rethought his next words. "They told me to kill her...I didn't know she was your girl."

"Who?"

"I don't know..." The trapped ninja gasped out as the sand ninja encouraged him to talk with a flex of her fingers. "I never saw them...in person...just messenger...birds."

Gaara felt a hand tap her on the shoulder and she turned her head to see not only Choji but also Shikamaru and several masked anbu arrayed around her prisoner.

"We can handle him from here, Kazekage-sama." Choji said with a small bow. It was his hand that rested companionably on her shoulder. "Maybe you should assist Matsuri-san back to the waiting room."

Gaara nodded and released her jutsu, dropping the hired killer ten feet onto the hard stony ground. He fell in a heap, all his limbs numb from the pressure of the imprisoning sand coffin.

The redhead turned away from him as the Konoha ninjas moved in to take the man in custody. The Kazekage knelt and helped Matsuri shakily to her feet.

"I'm so sorry, Gaara-sensei." The girl choked out.

"Hush." The redhead ordered mildly.

* * *

Together the pair made it back to the room Matsuri had been assigned for the finals and the brunette nearly fell onto the couch that had been provided. Her breathing was just beginning to even out and her coughing spells were growing further apart.

"Thank you." She said when she could trust her voice.

Gaara didn't reply, instead choosing to lean tiredly against the wall near the door. She was still stewing over Tsunami's words. He had been ordered to kill Matsuri specifically. The girl had little strategic importance on her own, capable though she might be, so that meant the genin's death was a means to an end. If they had been hoping to draw her out, it had worked but no one had attacked her directly which meant the goal was probably something more subtle.

'Perhaps they wanted to make me seem weak. If my own student was killed in front of me and I did nothing...I'd have to be either weak or heartless. Either opinion would help those who wish to see me removed from power in Suna.' Her mouth quirked upwards in a grim smile. 'If that is the case, I imagine they disappointed right now.'

"Gaara-sensei." Matsuri's weak voice cut through her thoughts and the redhead opened aqua colored eyes that she hadn't realized she had closed to regard her student curiously. The girl fidgeted with the hem of her skirt as she sat on the edge of the couch. "I'm sorry I didn't win. I guess I'm not really ready to become a chunin after all."

"I wouldn't say that." The redhead said slowly. "That waves ninja was at least jonin level and you handled your previous opponent with skill."

"You really think so?" The brunette asked hopefully.

The young Kazekage nodded. "I'll be sending in my recommendation for your immediate promotion to chunin at the end of the exams."

Matsuri's face lit up and she bounced to her feet. Gaara found herself caught up in an enthusiastic hug that she had to stop herself from fighting off. Matsuri seemed to realize what she was doing after a moment and hurried to let go, bowing in apology.

"Sorry, Kazekage-sama." She blushed. "I think I've been spending too much time with Naruto-kun."

Gaara couldn't help the small smile that crossed her face. "He has that effect on people." She admitted drily. "Come." She left the waiting area, the younger girl following in her wake.

* * *

She led the younger girl through the maze of tunnels in the arena's walls until the pair arrived back at the hokage's waiting chamber. A fox masked anbu guard bowed and gestured them into the room.

Tsunade was in conference with the Nara boy, Kakashi, and, Gaara noted with some surprise, her siblings. The group looked up as the pair of sand ninjas entered the room.

Tsunade smiled, though it looked a bit strained. "Matsuri, glad to see you up and about. You feeling okay?"

Matsuri nodded and the group pressed on to other matters.

"We should cancel the last match." Shikamaru was arguing tiredly. "The risk is not worth it."

"I'm not so sure." Kakashi said slowly. "We may not get a better opportunity to discover who targeted Matsuri."

"Yes, but what if she isn't the only target." The Nara heir glanced at the redhead meaningfully. "Konoha offered the Kazekage sanctuary and protection. If something were to happen to her on our watch..."

"The council would applaud because they wouldn't have to tell the people they took me out of office." Gaara told the group flatly.

Tsunade leaned her head on her hand and considered the options. "Gaara-san, the risk is yours to take. Whoever targeted Matsuri had to have been trying to get to you. If we let the tournament continue, they may try to attack you directly."

Gaara nodded grimly.

Tsunade pressed on before the redhead could make her decision. "Or they may try to take out other people you care about instead."

Gaara blinked. Naruto's grinning face flashed across her mind. What if his opponent in the final match was an assassin in disguise, like Tsunami had been. The leaf ninja could take care of himself but she still found herself fearing for him. The chunin finals were basically just glorified sparring matches. Fighting off a trained assassin was another thing entirely.

"We will find another way to draw them out." She said slowly. "I will not risk anyone else for my own gain."

Tsunade nodded, a small, grim smile toying with the corner of her mouth. "Okay, you heard the lady." She waved a hand at the assembled ninjas. "Go let our guests know the exams are over...and bring Naruto to me."

Kakashi nodded once and was gone in a blur. Choji bowed politely and calmly made his way to the door. Shikamaru shrugged and followed his large friend out, his hands shoved in his pockets. Temari moved towards the door as well.

"I'll secure our way out." The pigtailed teen told her siblings simply.

Gaara gestured to Kankuro. "Go with her. No one goes out alone."

Kankuro hesitated for a moment but a glance at the anbu scattered around the room made him feel safe enough in leaving his younger sister with the Hokage. "Stay here until we get back okay?"

Gaara nodded once and her brother was off in a flash.

Tsunade gestured for the redhead to sit. "You know...this actually worked out better than we had hoped."

The redhead cocked her head at the older woman in confusion.

"Don't get me wrong, it's disturbing that someone tried to kill your protege." Tsunade waved that off. "However, it did allow you to show everyone out there that you are still a formidable ninja. That may make your enemies more hesitant to provoke you."

Gaara nodded slowly. "Perhaps."

Just then, Naruto burst into the room, Kakashi following more sedately in the hyperactive teen's wake and taking up a guard position outside the door. "Baachan! What's going on? Everyone's leaving and the exam's not over!"

"The rest of the exam has been canceled." The older woman informed him evenly.

"WHAT!?" The blonde genin shouted. "Not again!"

Tsunade nodded. "It seems like we have trouble every time you are involved in the chunin exams." She chided.

"But I didn't do anything...and the last time wasn't my fault either..."

"Still, in order to reduce the risk of further incidents, I think it's best that you don't take part in the exams anymore."

The blonde teen began to sputter out a protest but the older woman continued smoothly.

"So I am promoting you to chunin level, effective immediately." A grin broke through the Hokage's stern expression as Naruto froze mid word, processing what she had just said.

"I...I passed?" He finally asked slowly.

Tsunade nodded, chuckling at his dumbstruck expression.

"I passed! Gaara-chan, I passed!"

Gaara offered him a small smile, his enthusiasm was contagious. "Yes. Congratulations."

Without warning the blonde ball of energy launched himself at the much calmer teen and Gaara found herself scooped up and spun around in a bone-crushing hug. She grabbed hold of the leaf ninja's shoulders to steady herself as he placed her back on her feet.

"Oi, hands off my sister, Fox-boy." A dry voice cut through the celebratory scene.

"Kankuro." Gaara frowned at her brother sternly as Naruto backed a respectful distance away from her, blushing slightly.

The black clad teen shrugged unapologetically. "We've secured a route back to the village. We should go."

Gaara nodded.

"Naruto, stay. We have things to discuss." Tsunade ordered.

"Sure." The blonde grinned, practically vibrating with joy. "I'll catch up with you later, okay Gaara-chan?"

The redhead nodded and followed her brother out, pausing to press a chaste kiss to the new chunin's cheek as she passed.

"Eww...don't do stuff like that in front of me." Kankuro's teasing voice echoed back to the pair. "Now, I'll definitely have to kill him, just to get that image out of my head."

Gaara's reply was lost as Kakashi closed the door.

Author's Note: I hope it was worth the wait. I really suck at writing action. Please review so I know people are still reading this. Hopefully the next chapter will come easier now that I'm through with the exams.


	17. Chapter 17: Questions and Answers

Author's Note: Wow. Have I mentioned how great all of you are? Because you are. I can't believe how quickly people reviewed and how nice everyone is about the long wait between updates (I'm still looking for that Chobi typo though lol). I also noticed that I didn't mention Matsuri leaving the office...so we're just gonna say she's a stealthy ninja and was so quiet nobody noticed her slipping out with Gaara and Kankuro, okay? At least until I get up the will to face that chapter again and fix the oversight. I also can't wait to see the fanart one reviewer mentioned! I hope they put it up and send me the link (with spaces so ff net doesn't eat it lol) Now, because you all are such wonderful and faithful readers, I'm gonna give you this chapter pretty quickly and get to work on the next one.

Sandstorms and Falling Leaves

Chapter 17: Questions and Answers

Tsunade waited until the masked jonin had shut the door firmly before she focused her full attention on her favorite jinchuriki.

"So, Naruto, what haven't you told me recently?" She asked, her tone deceptively light.

"Um..." The younger blonde was immediately wary.

"Maybe something that could cause an international incident... something that might jeopardize the most important peace treaty Konoha has ever made...anything like that spring to mind?"

"Uh..." The orange clad teen scratched his head sheepishly. "Gaara and I..." He trailed off into a mumble and blushed.

"What was that?" The fierce older woman snapped. "It sounded like it might be important."

"Gaara and I are dating." Naruto said again, his voice stronger.

"Really, I never would have guessed." Tsunade drawled sarcastically. "I knew that already, numbskull. I want to know why I keep getting reports about her sneaking into your apartment at night."

"What?! But we were so careful!" Naruto blurted in horror. If Tsunade had caught them, then there was a good chance that they hadn't been careful enough.

"I should hope so! The last thing we need is the Kazekage getting pregnant!"

Naruto's blush returned with a vengeance. "No! You've got the wrong idea! We're just sleeping, I swear! Nobody's getting anybody p-pr-pregnant." He stumbled over the word, looking a little queasy at the thought of that much responsibility.

Tsunade sighed and settled back in her chair. "That's a relief, but you do know what Suna's laws are like, ne?" She leaned forward and cupped her chin in one hand thoughtfully.

"Yeah, Gaara told me some...and Temari told me a lot more." Naruto admitted. "But Gaara...she doesn't sleep when I'm not there."

Tsunade nodded. She had suspected as much, the timing of the reports on the problem had coincided too neatly with Gaara's noticeably improved health.

"Right, so you see the problem. By Suna's customs and laws, she could be banished from her village for sleeping with a man before she's married, and nobody is gonna believe it's innocent. If you let things continue the way they are now, you risk Gaara losing more than just her position as Kazekage. Now, the question you have to ask yourself, is how can you fix this."

Naruto thought for a minute before shaking his head. "I don't know what to do, Baachan. I care too much about Gaara to let her get hurt that way, she loves her home, but I can't send her away when she needs me either."

Tsunade sighed. "You're overlooking the obvious answer." She said dryly. "There's a way you can keep your sleeping arrangement and Suna's council won't be able to do anything about it when they find out."

"Really?" The hyperactive teen bounced eagerly. "But how? I thought in order for it to be okay we'd have to be married..."

Tsunade looked at the orange clad teen meaningfully.

"Oh...right." Naruto blushed again, now sweating a little as well. "I guess that would fix it, but I don't even know if Gaara wants to get married. I mean we're both so young and she's got so much else going on right now..."

"Naruto." Tsunade interrupted his rambling. "The way you find out if a girl will marry you, is to ask her."

"Right...yeah, of course." Naruto pulled at his collar fretfully.

"Sheesh, I'm not saying you have to decide today, baka." The older woman shook her head. "I just thought you might want to start thinking about it before it becomes a serious issue."

"Okay...thanks." Naruto nodded, looking pale.

"That's it for now, you may go."

The blonde teen nodded, uncharacteristically quiet for once as he left the room.

Kakashi entered, his eyebrow raised at the younger ninja's mood. "So you told him."

Tsunade nodded. "They needed to know they've been spotted, so they can try to be more careful...and I may have planted a seed or two in that thick skull of his as well." The Hokage stretched and sat back in her chair. "Let's see what it grows into, ne."

* * *

Naruto wasn't sure why he felt so panicked. This wasn't the first time someone had suggested he and Gaara get married someday. Temari had joked about it and it hadn't bothered him then.

'But it's the first time someone said we should do it right now!' His mind pointed out frantically. 'We're too young to get married. What if it doesn't work out? What if she doesn't really love me? What if she says no?' The blonde shook his head to clear it as he walked aimlessly.

He left the arena area and slowly made his way back to the village, lost in thought.

'I don't want to have to get married just to satisfy some stupid laws that we aren't even breaking...' He scowled, his buoyant mood from making chunin nearly forgotten.

"Naruto-kun?" A voice pulled him from his thoughts.

"Hey Hinata-chan." He greeted the Hyuuga heiress half-heartedly.

"Hi...um...I guess you're probably upset about the exam, ne?" Hinata was surprised how easily the words came now that she had let go of her long held crush.

Naruto shrugged. "Actually, no. I made chunin. Tsunade just told me."

"That's great!" The lavender eyed teen smiled, but it soon faded as she noticed her friend's unusual lack of enthusiasm. "Isn't it?"

Naruto blinked. "Oh, well yeah...I mean, I've been waiting a long time and all..." He hesitated for a moment before giving in to the urge to talk to someone about his new problem. "It's something else Baachan had to say that's bothering me."

"Oh?"

"Yeah," Naruto looked around to make sure nobody was near enough to overhear them before he let the words rolling around in his head escape. "You see...Gaara has been sleeping in my apartment and somehow Baachan found out and now she says I should marry her so she can stay Kazekage but I don't want to get married because of some stupid laws and I'm only 16 and her brother and sister said the same thing and it didn't bother me but they never said I had to do it right away and she'd probably say no anyway and she's too busy right now with her training to worry about this stuff and..." He paused to take a breath.

Hinata to the opportunity to cut in. "Um...Naruto...maybe you should slow that down. I'm not really sure what's going on." She blushed.

Naruto sighed but made a concerted effort to organize his chaotic thoughts before he spoke again. "Gaara came to talk to me one night. She hadn't been able to sleep and Tsunade told her talking to someone might help her." He paused to make sure the blue haired girl was keeping up and pressed on her encouraging nod. "Well, she ended up falling asleep in my arms and I couldn't get loose without waking her so I sort of decided to just lay down with her...um...in my bed." He blushed at how bad that sounded out loud.

"I don't see the big deal...if it was just the one time and nothing happened..." The violet eyed teen began but stopped as her friend shook his head.

"She slept the whole night and didn't have any nightmares, so the next might she came back...and every night since then...well, except the day she almost killed you, that night I had to go to her. I think she was worried I'd be mad at her or something."

"Oh..." Hinata blinked. "Um...and you say you're just sleeping? Nothing else?" She asked, blushing at the memory of Naruto's pants thrown on the foot board of the redhead's bed.

"Yeah, well mostly..." The blonde scratched his neck sheepishly. "We have kissed a few times...but not at night and nothing more than kissing!" He hastily defended.

Hinata pondered the situation for a minute. "I see. So what laws are you breaking?"

"Sunagakure is really old-fashioned." The jinchuriki explained tiredly. "They have laws against people...um...you know...before they're married." His face turned crimson as he tried to explain without actually using the words. "Temari told me Gaara could be exiled from the village permanently if we ever get caught...um...doing anything like that."

Hinata was blushing too, but she was determined to help both her friends. "So they all want you to get married to prevent that from happening, ne?"

"Yeah." The orange clad teen slumped in defeat. "I don't know what to do. I love Gaara and I don't want to see her get hurt, but I don't want to get married just because of a stupid law either."

"Is that the only reason?" Hinata asked thoughtfully.

"Huh?"

"Maybe you are looking at this from the wrong angle, asking yourself the wrong questions." Hinata said slowly. "Maybe...you should be asking yourself what other reasons you might have for wanting to marry Gaara...or not marry her. See how you feel once you've really given it some thought."

Naruto nodded thoughtfully a small smile crossing his face as he mulled the idea over. "That could work." He said with just a hint of his usual excitement. "Thanks Hinata. I um...I should go think...I think." He grinned sheepishly.

"Okay, glad I could help." The polite girl smiled back softly.

Naruto started away with a bit of his usual bounce and Hinata found herself feeling very pleased indeed. She never would have guessed she'd be giving Naruto advice about his love life with another woman. Things had changed for her since Gaara came to the village but she couldn't say she was unhappy with the way things were going. Smiling, the blue haired teen turned towards home. She had a date to get ready for.

* * *

Naruto hurried straight home, plopping down in his rarely used desk chair and scrounging in the drawers of his desk for paper and something to write with.

"Aha!" He crowed as he victoriously placed the wrinkled page of notebook paper on the desk's surface and proceeded to divide it into two columns with the slightly chewed pencil he'd found.

"Okay...Get Married...and Don't Get Married..." He labeled the columns as he spoke.

'Stupid laws.' He placed in the don't category, but then scratched through it and placed it in the Marriage column instead. He didn't like it but it was true.

'Love her.' was then added to the pro-marriage column as well, and the teen doodled a little heart next to the words as he thought about what to write next.

'Scary siblings.' went into both columns. 'Makes me happy.' 'Loves me.' and 'Understands me.' went into the marriage list. 'Too young.' went into the anti-marriage column followed by, 'Too much responsibility' and 'Not enough money.'

Naruto eyed the list thoughtfully. "Being young isn't really a good reason, we've both already dealt with more than most people twice our age, and being a ninja isn't exactly the safest job. Who knows how long we'll even have together?" Gaara's still, cold corpse from a couple of months before swam up from the depths of his mind and he ruthlessly shoved it away again. "...and as for responsibility, Gaara's already leading her whole village and people trust me with their lives on missions all the time." The two points were scribbled out.

He frowned at the paper for a few moments. The redhead's voice floated into his mind, echoing the question she had asked him a few weeks earlier.

'When you think of your future...am I in it?'

He hadn't given the question much thought at the time, but now he closed his eyes and really tried to imagine his future. He saw himself in the Hokage robes, that wasn't anything unusual, but now he found that his mental picture of the future included a certain slender woman with unmistakable crimson hair at his side, and several children that were a mix of the two of them running all around the pair.

Naruto smiled at the daydream.

'Can't picture the future without her anymore.' He scribbled the words into the reasons for getting married list before crumpling the paper and tossing it into the small waste basket next to his bed.

He'd made his decision. Now he just needed to figure out the best way to ask her.

To be continued...

Author's Note: Well...that wasn't what I intended to write at all but it wanted to go that way and I try not to argue with my stories since that seems to be the leading cause of my writer's block (besides fight scenes lol). So...what will Naruto do next? What will Gaara have to say when he asks her? Will she ever unlock her blocked chakra network? And what sort of missions are in store for our favorite knucklehead now that he's finally a chunin? These and many other questions will be answered, eventually. I'm working on the next chapter but this story has a way of going places I don't intend to take it yet so I'm not even going to say exactly what that next chapter will be. You'll just have to wait and see along with me. Please review and let me know what you think of this chapter.


	18. Chapter 18: Propriety and Proposals

Author's Note: Bonus chapter for your patience! It would have been up sooner but my lunch breaks have been busy this week and that is the only time I have internet access! Still, two in one week isn't bad, ne? I won't suggest you get used to it but I am trying to get these written quickly, while I'm feeling inspired. In this chapter you get to learn some more of my version of Sunagakure's traditions and we encounter one rather big surprise for our favorite hyperactive ninja.

Sandstorms and Falling Leaves

Chapter 18: Propriety and Proposals

Naruto lay in bed thinking as the sun rose over the village. Gaara had already left to get ready for the day. It had been three days since the chunin exam and the blonde still hadn't found the right way to bring up marriage with the quiet girl. He didn't want to propose without at least getting an idea of how receptive she'd be to the idea, but he really sucked at subtlety. If he broached the subject, he was sure he'd spoil the whole thing by giving away his intentions.

He wanted the actual proposal to be something romantic, something Gaara would be able to tell their kids and grandkids about. He wanted to make it clear he was asking her because he really wanted to spend the rest of their lives together; not because of Suna's laws, or her scary poison making siblings, or any strong suggestions from the Hokage. In his mind that required her to be surprised.

The blonde teen frowned. "I need some help." He muttered thoughtfully. He wasn't even sure how people in Suna proposed to each other. Was it anything like Konoha's tradition of offering the woman a ring? Who could he ask?

He thought over his options but quickly narrowed it down to one of Gaara's siblings. He would have asked Matsuri but he didn't trust her to keep anything from the redhead. He weighed the two older sand ninjas in his mind carefully. Kankuro was definitely harder to talk to, but Temari was more volatile. Long minutes passed as he debated with himself. The sun had been up for an hour at least when he finally got up and dressed for the day. Ten minutes later he was ready to go. He had somebody he needed to talk to.

* * *

Temari was in the middle of washing the breakfast dishes when a rapid knock on the apartment door interrupted the quiet morning. The pigtailed blonde walked to the door and jerked it open, revealing a very nervous looking leaf jinchuriki in the hallway.

"Hey...um...is Gaara here?" He asked after clearing his throat a few times.

"No, you just missed her. She's gone to meet Hinata for training." Temari started to close the door, but his next words stopped her in her tracks.

"Good. I...uh...I need to talk to you...about..." He trailed off into mumbling, blushing fiercely.

"What was that last part? I didn't quite catch it." The pigtailed blonde leaned in the doorway, curious what the hyperactive teen could have to talk to her about.

"Right...sorry...I wanted to talk...actually to ask you..." The younger blonde took a deep breath. "I need to ask you about Suna's marriage customs." He finally blurted quickly.

Temari grabbed the flustered young man by the arm and dragged him into the apartment, closing and locking the door. "It doesn't sound like this is a conversation that needs to take place in the hall." She offered when he looked to her for an explanation.

"Right, sure. That makes sense." He nodded.

"Sit." The nearly twenty year old girl ordered, heading to the kitchen to make tea. This was likely to be a long conversation.

While the tea steeped, she tried not to get her hopes up. Sure, she and her brother had been attempting to steer the young couple into a more socially acceptable arrangement for their relationship but she hadn't expected it to work so quickly. 'Fox boy could just be curious about our customs.'

The sand jonin took the tray into the living room and set it on the low table in front of the couch. Once she had poured the tea for both of them she sank into the squashy armchair she had claimed as her favorite seat in the apartment and leveled a calculating look at the fidgeting teen.

"Okay, what do you want to know?" She asked evenly.

"Um...first, can you promise me you won't tell Gaara I talked to you about this?" He asked seriously.

"Why not?" The older blonde frowned.

"I want it to be a surprise." Naruto told her with a small smile.

Temari set her teacup down. This was more than curiosity. The knucklehead was actually planning to propose to her baby sister. "Okay." She agreed, trying not to show how excited she was.

"Right...so what should I do?" He asked slowly. "I mean, how do people in Suna propose? What do I give her? How long do engagements usually last? Is there anything special I have to do before we can get married? Do you think she'll say yes?" He stopped, biting his lip as if he hadn't meant for the last question to slip out.

Temari took a moment to digest the barrage of questions before she answered any of them. "Well, the first thing a guy has to do, before he can ask a young lady to marry him, is ask her father for permission."

"But...he's dead." The orange clad teen frowned.

"I know, and that's lucky for you." Temari waved off that objection. "If the father is deceased, the duty goes to the oldest male in the family."

"Oh...I have to ask your brother?" Naruto asked cautiously, almost certain the puppet master was Gaara's only living male relative, but not wanting to make a mistake.

"Yep." Temari grinned evilly. "Kankuro gets first say in whether you get to propose to our baby sister or not, so I suggest you come up with some convincing reasons he should let you."

Naruto nodded sharply, like he was accepting a dangerous mission. "Right, step one ask Kankuro. Then what?"

Temari sat back in her chair. "Then you can ask Gaara. Proposals in Sunagakure usually involve the couple exchanging necklaces, preferably something handmade rather than bought. If the engagement isn't planned by both parties ahead of time, the one proposing can offer the necklace and, if they accept the proposal, the other person reciprocates later, though most..." She trailed as the jinchuriki's eyes got wide and his hand flew to clutch at something under his shirt.

Fumbling with suddenly unresponsive fingers, Naruto managed to pull the sand flower vial from beneath his shirt. It dangled from his fingertips, catching the light from the window as he stared at it in shock.

"What's that?" The pigtailed woman asked, already suspecting the answer.

"Gaara made it for me. It's full of sand flowers. She uh...gave it to me before the exam. She said it was for luck."

"Hmm..." Temari eyed the tiny vial of sand thoughtfully. "Why would she give you a betrothal necklace and not tell you what it was really for?"

Naruto watched the grains shift inside the glass as the pendant swung from the leather cord. "Maybe she didn't think I'd ever ask her to marry me?"

"But she wanted you to have the necklace anyway." Temari nodded. "Yeah, that sounds like her."

"Baka." Naruto said, smiling fondly at the necklace.

"Hey, that's my family you're talking about." Temari punched the younger teen in the arm but it lacked any real force. "Well, I think you have your answer as to whether she'll say yes."

Naruto started to nod but another thought struck him. "Maybe...but what if she gave me this because she changed her mind and doesn't want to marry me?" He looked slightly ill at the thought.

"I...hmm...darn, you could be right." Temari highly doubted it, but she couldn't resist having a bit of fun with her future brother-in-law.

"Do you think you could ask her about it without giving me away?" The jinchuriki asked, bouncing in his seat.

Temari shook her head. "No way. If I start asking questions like that and then you propose, she'll think I pushed you into it."

The leaf ninja's face fell.

Temari's eyes lit up as an idea struck her. "Hinata!"

Naruto blinked. "What about her?"

The fan wielder rolled her eyes. "She can talk to Gaara without raising any suspicion."

Naruto nodded. "That's a great idea! Hinata sort of already knows what I'm planning anyway." He took a deep breath, a course of action forming in his head. "So, is there anything else I need to know?"

"You can propose any way you like so long as you give her the necklace. Engagements usually last about a year, sometimes less if the situation calls for it to be rushed. Oh, and when you go to propose, make sure you wear that where it can be seen." She tapped the still dangling vial meaningfully. "Betrothal necklaces aren't supposed to be hidden. It sort of defeats the purpose of them."

The orange clad young man grinned, letting the glass drop back against his chest but not tucking it back under his shirt with Tsunade's pendant. "Okay, thanks." He stood and bowed respectfully to the older teen. "Do you...um..."

"Kankuro is holed up in his room, if you want to talk to him."

Naruto thought it over for a few seconds, but shook his head. "Not yet. I gotta talk to Hinata first. I'll see you later."

The eldest Sand sibling nodded and showed the hyperactive teen out, closing the door behind him and leaning against it with a bemused smile.

"I hope you knew what you were doing, Sis, because I think he's decided to accept your proposal."

To be Continued...

Author's Note: I'm telling you, this chapter just wrote itself in about two hours. I admit to borrowing the proposal necklace idea from Avatar the Last Airbender, but in that only the women get them. So, there you have it. Naruto was all set to propose, only to discover Gaara already proposed to him first! She just neglected to mention it to him. Why would she do that? Will Hinata agree to help? What will Gaara say on the subject? Will Kankuro give them his blessing? What will Naruto make for his betrothal gift? What sort of romantic gesture does he have in mind for popping the question? What will Naruto's first chunin mission be? How will this decision affect his plans to become Hokage? All this is coming up just as soon as I get it out of my head and into the computer! Please Review! It feeds my creativity. Really!


	19. Chapter 19: Old Friends and New Missions

Author's Note: Hello again! Look at that! A reasonably timely update! Yay! I have the next chapter well in the works so it hopefully won't be long in joining this one. I hope everyone likes it. It didn't go exactly as I had planned but a plot bunny attacked me viciously and insisted the story needed to go a different way. Please review to let me know what you think, ne?

Also, I have just realized that I never addressed the piece of info Sasori gave Sakura bout Sasuke. I forgot all about it until I recently rewatched the rescue Gaara arc for inspiration. There's no way she and Naruto would have failed to act on that so please consider that little conversation to have never happened in this version of Naruto. SO sorry!

Just a reminder: "Blah" = Talking, 'Blah' = Thoughts

Sandstorms and Falling Leaves

Chapter 19: Old Friends and New Missions

Naruto left the conversation with Temari feeling more nervous than he was when he went into it. He wasn't looking forward to talking to Kankuro. Gaara's brother was decidedly the most frightening of the three sand siblings as far as the leaf ninja was concerned. It wasn't that Kankuro was physically imposing, or anymore vicious than some of the enemies the jinchuriki had faced. In fact, Naruto was fairly certain he could beat the puppet master in a fair fight. Unfortunately, he was also fairly certain the sand jonin would not fight fair. Also unfortunately he wasn't facing the hooded teen as an opponent, but as a prospective brother-in-law with the power to prevent him from marrying Gaara. That suddenly made him seem much more terrifying than ever before.

'Maybe he'll just give me his permission to marry Gaara and there won't be any trouble.' Naruto snorted at the unlikeliness of that scenario. 'Yeah, and maybe he'll trade Crow in for a fluffy bunny puppet and do shows for kids.'

Naruto sighed. He had to find just the right way to approach the prickly jonin.

'That is, if Gaara is even interested in getting married.' He thought, nervously toying with the necklace she'd given him.

He wanted to rush over and recruit Hinata to help him figure that out but the Hyuuga heiress was currently training with the one person who absolutely could not know what he was planning, Gaara herself. He'd have to wait until evening when they had finished for the day to ask the blue haired girl for help. That left him with hours to wait and nothing to do, and Naruto hated waiting.

Bored, the blonde jinchuriki wandered along the dusty streets.

His feet took him to the front of Ichiraku without him consciously directing them and his stomach let out a monstrous growl at the savory scents emanating from the small shop.

"Heh." Naruto scratched his head in embarrassment as several bystanders turned to look at him. "I forgot to eat breakfast." He mumbled as he ducked into his home away from home and took a seat on one of the stools.

Minutes later he was happily distracting himself from his thoughts, of necklaces and proposals and weddings and councils and irritable, assassin-trained big brothers, with a large bowl of steaming ramen.

He was halfway through his second bowl when the curtain rustled and a familiar voice came from behind him. "I should have known you'd be here."

Naruto spun around on his stool, noodles still dangling from his mouth for a moment before he slurped them up so he could acknowledge the new arrival. "Sakura-chan! Hey. I haven't seen you in weeks. Has Tsunade-baachan been keeping you busy?"

Sakura put her hands on her hips and glared at the blonde chunin. "I've been working at the hospital." She explained crossly. "Tsunade-sama wants to see us right away. She told me to come get you. I've been looking for you for half the morning."

"Oh...er...yeah?" Naruto scratched his head nervously, not wanting to explain where he had been or what he had been doing. He wasn't exactly sure what Sakura would think of his plan, but he was fairly certain she'd object. She tended to object to a lot of his ideas. Not that that was always a bad thing, but in this case he really didn't need anyone trying to talk him out of it. He was nervous enough without someone telling him what a bad idea getting married at sixteen was.

"Yeah!" Sakura huffed, annoyed that he hadn't provided a proper explanation. "So where..."

Naruto hurried to cut her off. "We should go, ne? Don't want to keep the Hokage waiting now do we?" The orange clad teen paid his bill and jumped up, fleeing the stall before the pink haired girl could finish her question.

Sakura blinked. 'He's definitely up to something.' Her inner Sakura pointed out evilly. 'We have to find out what it is...' Shaking off the voice, Sakura followed her teammate towards the Hokage's tower. There was time to figure out the hyperactive teen's motivations later. For now he was right. It was not a good idea to keep Tsunade waiting.

* * *

Shizune showed the pair in as soon as they arrived. Tsunade was sitting at her desk behind a pile of paperwork and she didn't look too happy about it.

"Oi, Naruto." She snapped. "What took you so long?"

"I...um...I was...uh...sorry." He decided to skip trying to explain and go straight to apologizing. "You wanted to see me?"

Tsunade eyed him curiously, her eyes glinting as she caught sight of the sand vial still hanging around his neck in plain sight. "Hmph. Yeah, team Kakashi has a mission." She held out a scroll and Naruto snagged it eagerly.

The new leaf chunin scanned the mission parameters, his face falling into a frown as he read them. "Escort duty for six weeks..." He said finally, with just a hint of dismay in his tone.

"Do you have a problem with the length of your assignment?" Tsunade asked sharply. She hadn't expected the usually eager young ninja to complain. It was a B rank mission.

"Yes...um...no, not really." The blonde changed his mind and scratched his head. He really didn't want to explain his objections in front of Sakura, who looking at him like he'd grown a second head. 'Yeah, I can't go because I'm worried Gaara will stay awake the whole time I'm gone. Oh and it will delay my plans to propose to her. Yeah, that'll go over well.'

"Good, because the client actually asked for you by name."

That distracted the teen from his thoughts and he cocked his head curiously at the older blonde. "Who's the client?"

"His name's Tazuna." Tsunade said, looking over her copy of the mission briefing.

"Tazuna...Tazuna...hm...I know that name..."

"Tazuna the bridge builder?" Sakura asked, dredging up the memories of their first big mission together.

The hokage nodded.

"Oh yeah! That's it!" Naruto bounced happily as he remembered the old man and his grandson. It would be nice to see how they were doing.

"Okay, then you leave at dawn. Kakashi will meet you at the main village gate with Tazuna. Yamato will also be accompanying you, as a precaution." Tsunade leaned back over her paperwork. "Good luck."

* * *

Naruto quickly separated from Sakura once the pair had left the tower, and went straight to the training grounds to find Gaara, all thoughts of proposing were on hold for the moment. It would have to wait until he got back from the mission.

'Well, at least it will give me time to work on her necklace without any danger of her finding out about it.' He thought, smiling slightly.

He leapt along through the treetops because it was faster than fighting the underbrush. Finally he came to a halt at the edge of the clearing Gaara and Hinata had been using to train.

The sight in front of him stopped him in his tracks.

Gaara was concentrating hard on a medium sized pile of sand in front of her. It was obvious she'd been training for hours already. Her scarlet hair was slightly damp with sweat, making it curl in all directions and causing her to look even more fey than usual. The sleeveless, knee length, black dress she was wearing was probably one of Temari's cast offs. The pigtailed blonde seemed to delight in having a sister to play dress up with, despite Gaara's resistance. The straight skirt was slit up to her hips to allow ease of movement. The tight red leggings and mesh undershirt beneath the dress highlighted the sand users well toned figure and a white sash embroidered with tiny red flowers kept the kimono styled dress closed. Deceptively slender arms moved gracefully around her, pulling the sand in their wake. Aqua colored eyes were narrowed as she wove the sand into a complex web of strands around herself.

'She's beautiful.' Naruto leaned against the trunk of the tree he was perched in and waited, not wanting to disturb the almost dance like quality of his girlfriend's complex jutsu.

Finally satisfied with her work, Gaara nodded to Hinata who had been waiting patiently off to the side. The blue haired girl seemed to hesitate for a moment.

"Go ahead." Gaara's voice broke the silence of the clearing, sounding slightly sharp.

"Okay, if you're sure you've got it this time." Hinata pulled out a handful of kunai and launched several at the redhead.

Gaara stood perfectly still, crossing her arms and watching the progress of the blades towards her body impassively.

Naruto found himself clutching the trunk of the tree he was standing in. He had faith that Gaara wasn't stupid or suicidal but it wasn't healthy to just stand there while someone threw sharp things at you.

His heart lodged in his chest as the kunai neared the redhead in her sand cage.

Thunk. Thunk. Thunk. Thwack! The sand net shifted neatly to deflect the first three projectiles, but the fourth one slipped through. Gaara was forced to deflect it with her hand at the last moment.

"That was better." Hinata said encouragingly.

"Not good enough." The redhead scowled, letting the sand sift down around her into a pile again as she checked her hand for damage. Finding none, she crossed her arms across her chest sourly.

'She's trying to recreate the ultimate defense.' Naruto realized with a start. 'But how does she control the sand without moving?'

The redhead was glaring at the pile of sand, as if it had failed her on purpose and she was pondering the best way to punish it. Suddenly, she turned and looked right at him. "Naruto." She greeted him quietly, still distracted by her failed jutsu.

"Hey Gaara-chan, Hinata-chan." The blonde hopped down from his perch with a smile and a wave. "I...um...needed to talk to Gaara for a minute. Can I interrupt?"

Hinata nodded. "We were almost done for today anyway." She said, with a meaningful look at the redhead.

The sand ninja nodded. She was at her current limit if she wanted to stay conscious.

"Great." Naruto bounced on his toes, reaching out and catching the redhead by the hand. "We'll see you later, Hinata-chan!" He called out as he dragged the bemused girl away.

Gaara managed to offer the blue haired teen a brief wave before the hyperactive leaf chunin pulled her from the clearing.

* * *

Gaara allowed herself to be tugged along Konoha's busy streets. She wasn't sure where Naruto was taking her but she trusted him enough not to be overly concerned. As they walked briskly along, she noticed something bouncing gently against his jacket and her heart lodged in her throat.

'The necklace...he's always kept it tucked in. Why is it out now?' She found her thoughts racing as she pondered the implications. 'Does he know what it means? Should I tell him? What if he gets angry? What if he hates it? What if Temari or Kankuro see it and tell him?' She blushed, glad the yellow haired teen was too intent on their destination to notice.

The redhead was still arguing with herself when Naruto finally came to a stop. Gaara recognized the place easily. They were on the cliff overlooking the village, right above the Hokages' stone visages. She pushed all thoughts of the necklace from her mind when it became apparent from his expression that the leaf chunin had something important to tell her.

* * *

Naruto was trying to come up with the best way to break the news about his mission. He considered and discarded several approaches hurriedly before deciding to just cut directly to the chase. Gaara wasn't much for idle chatter anyway.

"I just got assigned a new mission."

Gaara waited patiently for him to continue.

"It's...um...It's an escort and protect job..." He frowned worriedly. "For six weeks."

Gaara's eyes were the only part of her to show any reaction to his words, narrowing just slightly in dismay.

Naruto waited, obviously expecting her to respond somehow. When it became clear she wasn't going to say anything, he pressed on. "I could turn it down if you need me here." He offered nervously.

The redhead blinked, her features softening at the generous offer. She knew Naruto needed the income and furthermore, it was his first mission since making chunin. To refuse it would look very bad. "No." She said simply.

Naruto frowned. "But..."

"No." She cut off his protest with a pale hand over his mouth. "Good luck."

Naruto gently pulled her hand away, placing a kiss on the back of it and smiling softly at her. "You're sure you'll be okay?" He asked, reaching out and placing a hand on her cheek to make sure she wouldn't look away. Gaara's eyes tended to tell the truth when she was otherwise unreadable.

The sand ninja leaned into the touch, relishing the feeling of his warm skin on her face. "I'm not a china doll." She said dryly, her sharp words losing some of their sting as she hesitantly wrapped her arms around him. "I'll be here when you get back."

Naruto wrapped his arms around her in return, holding on as if she was in danger of slipping through his fingers like the sand she wielded. He buried his face in her soft hair.

"Just...come back safe...okay?" The kunoichi whispered into his chest, the words seeming to stick in her throat.

"No problem." The orange clad teen grinned, pulling away from her just a little so he could look into her worried eyes.

Gaara forced a small smile for his benefit. "When do you leave?"

"Dawn."

She nodded, her eyes catching sight of the necklace again. She found herself reaching out to touch the tiny vial without consciously deciding to do so. "I love you."

Naruto leaned down to kiss her gently on the lips. "I love you too."

* * *

The pair spent the rest of the day together, just walking around the village, talking about trivial things. Neither ninja wanted to think about the upcoming weeks apart, so by unspoken agreement they avoided the subject.

"Are you hungry?" Gaara asked as the sun was beginning to set.

"Sure." Naruto nodded, wondering where they should go to eat.

The ex-jinchuriki caught him by the hand and tugged gently. "I'll cook." She said with a tiny ghost of a smile.

Naruto grinned and let her lead him back to the apartment she shared with her sister.

* * *

Temari shot the leaf ninja a curious look behind her sister's back when the pair arrived, clearly wondering if he had gone ahead and talked to her about marriage after all. The leaf jinchuriki shook his head quickly.

"Hey, Temari-chan." He said out loud as Gaara released his hand to move into the kitchen. "I have to leave on a mission tomorrow. I just found out about it a couple of hours ago."

Understanding and a touch of disappointment flashed across the pigtailed blonde's face, but her voice betrayed none of that when she replied. "You must be excited, ne? First chunin mission."

Naruto shrugged. "Yeah, I guess so." His eyes drifted to the kitchen where Gaara was busily chopping vegetables. "I just wish it was a shorter mission. I only just got home."

"How long will you be gone?" Temari asked, her tone deceptively light as her eyes flashed with concern for her baby sister.

"Six weeks, if everything goes according to plan."

The pair exchanged an understanding look. Missions often had a tendency to take longer than planned.

* * *

Gaara did her best to tune out the conversation as she carefully stir-fried the vegetables and put some rice on to cook. As much as she didn't want to admit it, she wasn't sure how she'd fair without Naruto for so long. She still hadn't managed to sleep through the night without his presence and she knew she'd miss a lot of other things about him too. She'd never felt so close to anyone outside of her siblings before. In many ways, she actually felt her bond with the hyperactive jinchuriki was deeper than she had with her family. In the months since her brush with death, her old friend had become so much more than just that. Somehow, without her even realizing it at first, Naruto had become her refuge, her safety net.

'Well, time to start working without a net again.' She told herself firmly.

* * *

Temari watched her younger sister for a while. She envied Gaara's confidence in the kitchen. Somehow, the redhead had ended up being the only one in the family with an ounce of cooking skill. It was especially funny because of the three of them, Gaara had been cooking for the shortest time by far. She'd only begun to try such things after the botched Konoha invasion.

The pigtailed blonde smirked as she recalled the first meal Gaara had ever prepared for her.

* * *

They were on a mission which was nothing terribly unusual. The Konoha invasion attempt was only a couple of months behind them and Suna was still reeling from the death of their father. The council was giving them mostly simple, boring assignments. Perhaps it was intended as some sort of misguided attempt to punish them for their father's failures. Possibly the council wanted to give them time to recover from the injuries they had sustained, though most likely it was just to keep Gaara busy and away from the village while they decided what to do about the volatile jinchuriki. Not that they could actually do much when it came to really controlling the redhead. What the council didn't see, was that the sand user was beginning to control 'himself'.

Kankuro and Temari were too busy trying figure out what Gaara was going to do next, to worry much about the council or their mission status. Their youngest sibling had been acting strange since Naruto had defeated 'him'. He was more introspective than usual, he actually followed the plan on missions, and he hadn't threatened to kill either of them in ages. He was still having moments when Shukaku got the better of him, especially in a fight, but Temari had noticed that he was occasionally leaving enemies alive and that he would stop his attacks at once if she or Kankuro asked him to.

Neither of the older pair was sleeping well, always feeling the need for someone to keep watch with the insomniac jinchuriki. So it shouldn't have surprised any of them when one of them made a stupid mistake. They underestimated the defenses around a bandit hideout and walked right into a trap. Not only that, but the bandits were harboring several missing ninja that they hadn't spotted in their initial reconnaissance. Kankuro was scouting the hideout when the attack began, but Temari and Gaara rushed in when they heard him call out.

Temari caught up just in time to see the hooded teen drop like a stone, blood staining the ground beneath him. She had hurried to his defense, pushing the enemies back with a burst of wind from her fan and kneeling beside the puppetmaster to check on him. Unfortunately, the enemy ninjas used that opportunity to attack and one just managed to clip her on the side of the head with something heavy. The last thing she saw as her world went black was a flash of crimson hair suddenly between her and the enemy.

The next thing she saw was that same crimson hair framing dark-ringed, aqua eyes that were watching her with something that could almost be interpreted as concern. She blinked and the concern was gone, covered by the redhead's normal blank expression. Choosing not to wander into the minefield of Gaara's emotions seemed wise. Especially while her head felt like someone had set off fireworks inside it, so she focused instead on struggling into a sitting position, fighting off a wave of nausea as she manged it.

She was relieved to see Kankuro sleeping just a few feet away, his wound neatly bandaged and Crow carefully placed within reach. They were still in the bandit camp from what she could see, but the terrain was almost unrecognizable due to the sheer quantity of sand covering the area. The bandits and missing nin were nowhere to be seen and since Gaara had been left to finish the fight alone, Temari didn't really want to know what happened to them. She could guess well enough.

Her musings were interrupted by a pale hand holding out a plate under her nose. Temari blinked at the roasted meat and root vegetables on the plate for a minute.

"You should eat." Gaara's rarely used voice broke the silence softly.

Temari still remembered how surreal the whole evening had felt. Sitting there, eating the slightly dry meat and bland tubers, watching Gaara carefully check on their brother or stir the small fire to keep it going. It was the first time the quiet jinchuriki had demonstrated actual concern for the welfare of someone else. Somehow it made the redhead seem more human than the pigtailed blonde had ever expected. That's when the eldest Sand sibling realized Gaara really was changing. Temari never looked at her youngest sibling quite the same way again.

* * *

Temari came back to the present, only to realize Naruto was still talking animatedly to her, something about bridges and gangsters hiring missing ninjas. She couldn't follow his story completely but she got the gist of it.

* * *

Gaara finished cooking and set the table in silence. She eyed the resulting meal critically, but was unable to find any major faults with the simple food she had made. Finally satisfied, she took a deep breath and turned to face her sister and their guest.

"It's ready." She said simply.

* * *

Temari turned on a bright smile and hurried over. "It looks great, Sis." She patted the smaller girl on the shoulder in thanks as she sat down.

Naruto bounced up from his seat on the couch as well. "Yeah it smells really good, Gaara-chan." He grinned cheerfully.

Gaara blushed faintly at their praise as she took her seat between them.

"Itadakimasu." The trio chorused with varying degrees of enthusiasm before digging into the food.

The meal went smoothly until they were nearly done eating. Temari caught Naruto's attention while Gaara wasn't looking and the gleam in her eye made the leaf ninja decidedly nervous.

"So, Naruto." The fan user began with feigned nonchalance. "That's an interesting necklace. Where'd you get it?"

Gaara's eyes widened, her hand stilled with the chopsticks halfway to her mouth.

Naruto scratched the back of his neck but did his best to sound normal when he answered. His other hand drifted to the pendant in question. "This? Ah, Gaara gave it to me."

"Really?" Temari turned speculative eyes on her baby sister, who was beginning to turn interesting shades of red beneath the curtain of her increasingly unruly hair.

Gaara kept her head down and refused to meet her sister's eyes, knowing the older girl could read her like a book.

"She gave you a necklace?" Temari repeated, trying to provoke the redhead into responding somehow. "Did you know that's how-OW!" Temari grimaced as the response came in the form of a sharp kick to her shin.

Naruto stared at the pair curiously, not sure what had just happened. "How what?" He asked after it became apparent Temari wasn't going to continue. He knew what she was going to say but he didn't want Gaara to know that he knew.

"Oh um...nevermind." The older teen said with a smirk and a sharp glance in Gaara's direction.

Gaara sighed softly in relief. She had the feeling she was going to have some explaining to do later, but at least Naruto wouldn't find out what that necklace really meant. She still didn't know exactly what had made her think making him a betrothal necklace was a good idea. There was no way he'd consider getting married anytime soon, if ever. The redhead didn't have any real experience to draw on but they'd only been dating a short time and most people don't get engaged mere months into a relationship. 'Especially to someone like me.'

Naruto looked from one sister to the other, his head cocked as he tried to figure out what he was missing. Temari had obviously been using the necklace as an excuse to bring up the idea of an engagement, but she had given up without getting Gaara to say anything. It was decidedly weird. Still, Gaara's small reactions were pretty interesting, particularly the blush that still stained her pale cheeks slightly pink as it began to fade.

* * *

They finished the meal without further mention of the subjects of necklaces, marriage, or his mission. All of which were topics Gaara was pleased to avoid. Throughout the meal, the redhead could feel a knot of worry growing in her chest. What was she going to do? She could not lie to her sister but she didn't want to admit how stupid she had been to the older girl.

As Temari gathered the dishes, Gaara walked Naruto to the door with forced calm. Once there she hesitated only a moment before wrapping her arms around his neck and leaning into his chest soaking in his presence. Naruto was quick to return the embrace.

"Go ahead." The redhead said quietly, pulling back. "I'm going to help Temari with the dishes."

Naruto nodded and let her go reluctantly. It still amazed him how well she fit in his arms, how right it felt to hold her close to him.

The redhead offered him a small, forced smile as she shooed him out the door and shut it behind him. She leaned against it for a moment, as if she could draw strength from the heavy wood, before moving back into the kitchen with dread heavy in her steps. Temari was now waiting with her hands on her hips, all pretense of nonchalance gone.

"A necklace, ne?" The older teen prodded when the sand user failed to find the words to explain.

Gaara nodded, her eyes cast down and to the side to avoid looking directly at the pigtailed girl.

"And did you make it yourself?" Temari continued to push.

Another small nod was her only response.

"Does he know what it means?" The blonde tried one more time.

This time, she got no reaction from the silent ex-jinchuriki.

Temari sighed. Gaara had come a long way emotionally in the past few years, but she still sometimes fell back into old habits when she was forced to deal with something that made her truly uncomfortable. 'Not this time, Little Sis.' Temari moved around the table dividing them and reached out slowly, turning the redhead by the chin until the younger girl was forced to meet her eye. "Talk to me." She ordered gently, her tone almost pleading.

With that, all the younger teen's carefully rebuilt emotional defenses came crashing down. "He can't find out." She managed to get out before the lump in her throat silenced her. A small sob managed to rip its way past the painful obstruction, only to be followed rapidly by more, though her eyes remained painfully dry. The wracking sobs stole her breath and she dropped to her knees, spots swimming in her vision as her body began to crave oxygen.

Temari stared for a moment. She knew the signs of a panic attack, they weren't uncommon among ninja on dangerous missions. She'd just never seen her little sister have one. 'Send an army against her and she's as steady and immovable as a mountain, bring her back from the dead and she takes it in stride, but being in love...that terrifies her.' Shaking her head at the wrongness of that, the blonde teen hurriedly knelt beside the shaking redhead and laid a hand on one pale shoulder, cautiously, since she wasn't sure the girl would appreciate being touched.

"Gaara, look at me." She ordered softly when the redhead didn't lash out or pull away. "You need to take a deep breath before you pass out."

Gaara tried to comply but her lungs seemed to have grown a mind of their own and she continued to hyperventilate. She shook her head in frustration, squeezing her eyes shut and clenching her hands into fists until her nails drew crescents of blood from her palms as she tried to regain control.

Temari slowly pulled the younger ninja into her arms and rubbed her back in slow circles. "You're fine. You have to calm down. Just breathe." She kept up a steady stream of reassuring nonsense for several minutes until she felt the petite frame start to relax and the erratic breathing begin to finally slow. The older girl fell silent but continued to hold the trembling redhead for several more minutes until she felt the girl try to move away.

Gaara shifted away from her sister, embarrassed by her loss of control. "Sorry." She said finally, still struggling to steady her racing heart.

"Don't be." Temari waved it off, knowing Gaara would feel worse if she knew how much her outburst had worried the older girl. "It happens to the best of us sometimes. Kankuro used the get so nervous he'd throw up before every mission." She smirked, hoping to lighten the mood with a bit of normalcy. "Now, are you ready to talk about that necklace?" The blonde kept her tone gentle, not wanting the redhead to think she was in any kind of trouble.

Gaara shook her head. "Can it wait until tomorrow?" She asked quietly, resting her face on her knees in front of her.

Temari thought about it for a moment before nodding. "Fine, but we ARE going to talk about it." The redhead stood and started towards the door but the older girl reached out and caught her wrist. "...and give yourself a little more credit, okay?"

Gaara's brow furrowed in confusion but she didn't want to lose any more time. This was her last night to spend with Naruto for a while and she wasn't going to waste it. She darted from the apartment in a blur.

To be continued...

Author's Note: Whoa...that one got sort of long on me. It just didn't want to be broken. Sorry if you were expecting the big question or the discussion with Kankuro in this chapter. That was my original plan but my mind kept insisting I needed to take care of some things first. Not to mention, Naruto's been off the mission roster for almost two months now so it was about time he had some work to do. Also, I'm really not sure what happened with Gaara there but I figure if anyone has earned the right to be a little bit insecure about love, she has. After all, most of the people who claimed to love her were either using her or they eventually tried to kill her...or both. I can also say I wrote that panic attack from experience. I used to suffer from them frequently and they suck. You can't catch a breath, you can't explain what's wrong, and worst of all you can't stop freaking out no matter how irrational you know you're being. I just thank the Lord I don't generally have that kind of crushing worry anymore (Matthew 6:25-34). My heart goes out to anyone else who deals with severe anxiety. Okay, I'll climb down off my soapbox now and get back to work on the next chapter. Please read and review! Thanks!


	20. Chapter 20: Last Nights and First Days

Author's Note: Alrighty, here's another nice long chapter for all you lovely people. I hope this helps to make up for any disappointment you may have felt about the previous chapter. Thanks for all the positive reviews! Please review this one too and let me know what you think about it, ne? Thanks!

Sandstorms and Falling Leaves

Chapter Twenty: Last Nights and First Days

Naruto was waiting at his open window when Gaara arrived and she practically flew into his arms, knocking them both from the bed to the floor in a tangled heap.

"Whoa!" He gasped, wrapping his arms around her as she tried to pull away. "What was that for?"

Gaara blushed, she hadn't intended to do that. She had been using her chakra to move faster through the village and she'd just, sort of forgotten to slow down soon enough. "I'll miss you." She said slowly.

Naruto smiled a bit sadly. "Yeah. I'm gonna miss you too." He assured her, brushing her cheek with the back of one hand.

Neither was certain who leaned in first but when their lips met it ceased to matter. For a few minutes the only thing that held any importance was the feeling of his hand tangled in her hair, the teasing dance of their tongues as the kiss quickly deepened into something more passionate than either had intended, and the way her slender hands roamed down his tee shirt clad back raising gooseflesh in their wake.

Only when one of those pale hands slipped hesitantly under the hem of his shirt did Naruto force himself to pull away, all the warnings he'd been given echoing suddenly loud in his mind.

Gaara drew back at once, as if scalded. She was breathing hard and her cheeks were flushed, but whether it was from exertion or embarrassment about what they had just been doing, Naruto wasn't sure.

"We...um...that was...uh..." Naruto stammered, his mind shorting out as other parts of his body commanded his attention despite his best efforts to ignore them. He couldn't stand the hurt look in her eyes but he was having trouble figuring out how to fix it.

"We should sleep." Gaara supplied quickly, not certain she wanted to know why he had pulled back.

Naruto latched onto that idea quickly, since his own brain was still refusing to make any coherent thoughts. "Yeah, sleep. It's...um...getting late, ne?"

The redhead nodded, standing so he could get up. For the second time that night she found her wrist caught in a strong grip as she tried to move away. She found herself looking into warm blue eyes before she could think better of it.

"You're really beautiful you know." Naruto told her sincerely, love clearly written on his features. He was finally beginning to regain control of his faculties and he needed to break through the emotionless mask the petite redhead had settled into. Having begun, the words came easily to him. "You're also brilliant and talented and you're so incredibly strong. Sometimes I'm actually a little jealous of you." He smiled, to show her that wasn't really a bad thing. "You care so much about people, even if you don't always know how to show it. You have a wicked sense of humor that a lot of people never get to see. You're incredible for so many reasons. We'd be here all night if I try to list them all, so I guess I'm just trying to say that..." He reached out and caught her hand, squeezing it gently. "I love you more than anything in this world and I hope someday you'll finally be able to see in yourself what I do."

Gaara was speechless. Naruto had told her he loved her before, but she could never understand why. 'How can he see all of that in me when he knows the things I've done?' She couldn't come up with any response that seemed adequate. She could tell him all the reasons she loved him but she didn't think he really needed to hear them. She could kiss him again but they'd so nearly gotten carried away just minutes before and teenage hormones were not a force to be trifled with.

Naruto saved her from having to respond, turning and tugging her towards the twin bed with the hand he still held. She followed him willingly and the pair was soon curled snugly onto the narrow mattress. Both lay awake for a long time, thinking.

Naruto's mind strayed to the feel of Gaara's cool hand on the bare skin of his stomach but he shut that thought down quickly. 'We almost...I never...That was too close. Temari and Kankuro would kill me if they saw something like that. Tsunade would kill me too actually...and maybe Sakura...' He berated himself silently. 'Maybe being apart for a little while will be a good thing. It'll give us both time to cool off a little before things really get out of hand. After all, it won't do any good with Suna's council for Gaara to get engaged if we can't keep our hands to ourselves until the wedding.' That thought invariably lead to the idea of wedding nights and what they were all about, and the blonde jinchuriki had to cut that train of thought off at the pass before he gave himself a nosebleed. Resolutely, he fixed his mind on counting the stars he could see outside his window until he fell asleep.

Meanwhile Gaara was still mulling over his words, marveling that anyone could see her that way. Even though she knew her brother and sister loved her, the redhead didn't think that they would describe her in such a positive way. 'They know me too well.' She frowned, thinking of some of the things her siblings had seen her do when she was younger.

Gaara knew that Naruto liked to see the best in people but she also knew he wasn't as naive, or as stupid, as many people seemed to think he was. Naruto looked for the good in people because he had seen more than enough evil in his short years, and because he knew everyone deserved a chance to change. He'd given her that chance years ago and she'd taken full advantage of the opportunity. Still, she'd never expected him to find so much about her to really love. She'd certainly never considered herself worthy of such ardent affection.

'But if he thinks I am all of those things...maybe I could be...for him.' She thought to herself, studying Naruto's smooth features through the gloom as he slept. Her hand sought out the Sand Flower Necklace and she gently pulled it up where she could see it dangling between them. "Naruto..." She waited but he didn't answer. "Marry me?" She whispered, sure that he was too asleep to hear her.

"Mm'Kay." Naruto mumbled sleepily as he flung an arm over her side and pulled her close. His speech was slurred with sleep and his eyes remained shut but Gaara's eyes were wide with shock.

'He has to be dreaming.' She told herself firmly. 'He'll never remember it in the morning.' Nonetheless, she felt a warm weight settle in her chest and the flutter of something utterly joyous in her heart flaring to life. 'He still said yes.' She smiled, dropping the pendant back against his tee shirt clad chest and tucking her head under his chin as she waited for sleep to claim her.

* * *

Dawn came too quickly, Gaara concluded sourly as she watched Naruto rush around his room. The orange clad jinchuriki was gathering last minute things to add to his pack. The sun had not yet started to rise but the sky was decidedly lighter than it had been a few minutes earlier. They didn't have much time.

Finally satisfied with his packing, Naruto turned to her with a nervous smile. "Will you see me off?"

Gaara nodded and stood from her seat on the bed, where she had remained so as to be out of the way of her boyfriend's frantic activity. "I'll meet you at the gate."

Naruto nodded and grabbed his pack. He understood. It wouldn't do for them to be seen leaving his apartment together at such an early hour.

The redhead darted out the window without another word.

* * *

Naruto took one last look around for anything important he might have forgotten and then locked his apartment up and started towards the towering gates of the village. As he got close, he spotted Sakura standing with Tazuna, and Captain Yamato leaning on a post just inside the open gate. Kakashi was nowhere to be seen and the blonde sort of hoped the jonin would be late as usual. He wasn't looking forward to leaving Konoha as much as he usually did.

The reason for his reluctance came around the corner in front of him and offered him a tiny smile in greeting. Gaara had shed her cloak and was wearing only the tight black shorts and slightly oversized tee shirt she often slept in. She had tied her forehead protector around her waist like a belt to make the outfit more presentable, but she obviously hadn't tried to make it home to change before seeing him off. Naruto smiled back at her warmly. He caught her by the hand as he passed and continuing towards the gate with the redhead at his side.

Gaara nodded to Sakura as they reached the waiting mednin. Yamato bowed slightly to the young Kazekage and she nodded politely to him as well, though they had never met.

Sakura smiled at the quiet ex-jinchuriki. "Good morning, Gaara-chan." The pink haired teen chirped cheerfully. "This is Tazuna-san, our client. Tazuna-san, this is Kazekage Gaara." Inner Sakura congratulated herself for doing such a professional sounding introduction. It wasn't often she got to announce a foreign kage.

The old man bowed to the redhead, a bit confused by the presence of a foreign dignitary until he spotted her hand clasped in Naruto's larger one.

Naruto leaned down, ignoring the audience, and placed a chaste kiss on the petite girl's cheek. "I'll come see you as soon as I get back." He promised with a grin.

Gaara nodded, knowing he'd keep his word. "Be careful."

Naruto grinned and pulled her into his arms. He buried his face in her hair. "You too." He whispered, thinking of the assassins that had already come after the exiled Kazekage and those she cared for.

Gaara nodded once more and slowly pulled away from the leaf chunin. She let one hand linger on his chest as she pushed herself back from him. Her fingers barely brushed the betrothal necklace and she blushed, remembering his sleepy answer to her whispered proposal.

Naruto caught her hand before she could withdraw it. "I'm sure we'll have lots to talk about when I get back." He said with a smile.

"Hey!" Kakashi's voice broke the pair apart. "Can we go now?" He asked, sounding bored.

"You just got here!" Sakura shouted back at their perpetually tardy team leader. She had been watching Naruto and Gaara interact like it was one of the romantic dramas she liked to watch on her rare days off and she was more than a little perturbed to have the show interrupted.

"All right. Let's go." Naruto took a step away from Gaara reluctantly, then another, forcing himself to turn away.

The rest of the small group fell in with him easily, but the blonde paused at the gate to look back. Gaara still stood precisely where he'd left her, pale and ethereal looking in the early morning mist. Her eyes were locked on him and she raised one hand to wave stiffly. It was what people did when someone was leaving.

As Naruto watched, the sunlight crowned the buildings and washed over the silent girl. Her untamed hair became a fiery halo. Her fair skin was so pale it almost seemed to glow, making the shadows around her uniquely colored eyes even more distinct.

The leaf jinchuriki found himself dashing back to her in an instant, unable to resist pulling her into his arms once more. He leaned down and kissed her gently, not caring that they had an audience.

Gaara hesitated for only a moment before deciding she didn't care either and kissing him back. It reminded her of their first kiss, in the middle of a busy street in Suna.

They broke apart after several long seconds and Naruto grinned sheepishly at her, hoping he hadn't embarrassed her. Gaara let a small smile out, just for him, and the leaf chunin sighed in relief.

"I love you, Gaara." He said firmly. "Don't forget that, okay?"

The tiny smile grew a little. "I love you too. Now go." The redhead ran one cool hand down his cheek and then pushed him gently towards his teammates.

Sakura had both her hands clasped in front of her chest and you could almost see the hearts floating in her eyes as she watched them. Kakashi looked a little amused but it was hard to tell with only one eye to go by. Tazuna waited with the aplomb only the elderly seem to have when it comes to young love, though his eyes sparkled with remembered joy and a smirk lingered at the corner of his mouth.

Naruto nodded and ran to join them at the gate, a spring in his step that wasn't there before. 'Gaara will be okay. She's overcome a lot worse things than nightmares.'

* * *

Gaara remained where she was until long after the group was out of sight. A shadow landing at her side finally drew her eyes away from the now empty path.

"So, he's gone?" Temari asked, laying a hand on the shorter girl's shoulder.

Gaara nodded, her eyes going back to the gates once more. Her thoughts were clearly no longer anchored in the village.

Temari wasn't sure what to say. She knew her sister was unhappy with the situation but the younger teen didn't want to admit such a weakness. Knowing she needed to do something, she fell back on a little humor. It was relatively safe territory with her prickly siblings.

"So...are you planning to stand here until he gets back?" She asked dryly. "I think they're calling for rain later this week."

Gaara blinked and finally turned away from the towering gates with a small shake of her head. "Would you like to spar?" She asked suddenly, thinking of all the training she still needed to do if she wanted to retain her position as Kazekage. 'I wouldn't want Naruto to be disappointed when he gets back...'

The question caught the pigtailed blonde off guard but she recovered quickly. "Loser makes breakfast?"

Gaara considered the bet for a moment before nodding.

Temari grinned. "You're on, Little Sister!"

As the pair raced towards the training area, Gaara had a thought she'd never considered before. 'I wonder if she'd notice if I threw the fight.' She grimaced at the thought of braving her sister's cooking so early in the morning but quickly discarded the idea anyway. The chance to show the older girl how much she had improved since they'd come to Konoha was too important to waste. She could almost hear Naruto's voice in her head. 'Nah, kick her butt!'

* * *

Two hours later, Temari conceded defeat gracelessly and the sweaty, sandy, bruised pair headed home. It had been a very close fight at a couple of points but Gaara's work at restoring her ultimate defense had paid off. It still was far from being as effortless and perfect as it had been with Shukaku, but by combining her affinity with the sand and a variation of Hinata's powerful defensive style she was able to block most attacks without ever lifting a finger. She'd only gotten a small pair of scratches on one shoulder when a barrage of wind blades managed to temporarily break down the sand net she had cast and she hadn't quite managed to dodge the few that slipped through.

Temari on the other hand had a wicked looking bruise growing on one shin where she had misjudged a tree branch while avoiding the ex-jinchuriki's sinking sand. She could also feel the sting of half a dozen minor abrasions where the edges of the redhead's attacks had caught her.

"You know..." She said as she investigated the small wounds carefully to decide which ones might need first aid. "For someone who doesn't move much in a fight, you're pretty fast."

Gaara shrugged. "I can do better." She insisted, glaring at the scratches on her shoulder as the motion reminded her they were there.

The older teen grinned and slapped the redhead on the back cheerfully. "Yeah, I know. Now come on. I've got a new recipe I want to try." The blonde darted off with a grin.

The ex-jinchuriki fought off the urge to sigh as she followed the older girl at a slightly slower pace. 'I think I might have been better off losing.' She frowned nervously. 'Last time she tried a new recipe we were sick for three days.'

After the pair had taken turns showering and getting dressed, the nearly twenty year old woman got to work fulfilling the bet she'd lost.

* * *

The resulting breakfast was decidedly inedible but Temari refused to admit it, choking down the unidentifiable concoction with a forced smile. Gaara made an effort for a bite or two and then used her sand to scrape the mess off the plate and throw it out the window when the older teen was busy choking on a bone of some kind. The blonde eyed the bone curiously when she had finally extracted it from her throat.

'I don't remember putting any chicken in this...' Her eyes strayed to the redhead, narrowing suspiciously as she caught sight of the empty plate, but Gaara's carefully blank face was without flaws.

"Thank you for breakfast." The redhead offered politely as she stood. "I'll see you later."

Temari sighed, letting whatever her youngest sibling had done with her food slide. She really wasn't sure it was a good idea to eat it anyway, her pride just wouldn't let her admit it. "Sure. Tell Hinata I said Hi...and Gaara." The blonde waited until she was sure she had the younger girl's full attention. "We still need to talk today sometime."

Gaara nodded in resignation and fled the apartment without another word.

* * *

Hinata was waiting for her in their training area, studying the remains of the early morning sparring match with mild concern. She turned to the redhead with a relieved smile as Gaara entered the clearing.

"Temari and I were practicing." The sand user offered in explanation before the Hyuuga heiress could ask what happened. Her mood had gone steadily down since she and her sister had finished sparring.

Hinata nodded thoughtfully. "You really are doing better." She said slowly, looking around at the telltale signs of the fight. "Who won?"

Gaara shrugged, her shoulder stinging slightly and souring her mood further. "I did."

"That's great, Gaara-chan." Hinata beamed. "Temari-san is a jonin. Your chakra levels are definitely rising."

Gaara sat down against a tree. "I still can't reach the rest of it."

Hinata's smile faltered a bit. "Yes, but given enough time you'll..."

"I don't have that kind of time." The redhead snapped out, immediately regretting the harsh words but unable to take them back.

The blue haired girl blinked in shock. Her friend had been becoming more and more easily frustrated recently but this went beyond that. "What's wrong? Did something happen...with Naruto?"

Gaara bowed her head, her face going blank. "He's gone."

"Gone?" Hinata repeated, confused. "Where?"

"On a mission."

"Oh." Hinata was a bit relieved that it wasn't anything more serious than that. "Well, he'll be okay."

Gaara shook her head, finally voicing her doubts. "Will I?"

The violet eyed girl hesitated before admitting what she knew about the situation. "Naruto told me you've been staying at his place. Sleeping."

Aqua eyes went wide with alarm.

"I won't tell anyone else. He just wanted my advice on something and he needed me to understand the whole situation."

"What sort of advice?" The redhead asked, curious what was important enough to make Naruto tell the girl such a dangerous secret.

"I...I can't tell you." Hinata blushed sheepishly. "I promised Naruto."

Gaara pondered that for a moment before deciding she trusted Naruto and Hinata both enough not to be too concerned with what they had discussed. That didn't stop her from being curious though. The redhead stored the conversation away to revisit later. Right now she had more pressing concerns.

The ex-jinchuriki was dreading going home to face her sister's questions; she was more than a little bit nervous to face going to sleep on her own; she had to somehow do ten years of chakra development in less than two years; and even then it might not be enough if she didn't manage to reach Shukaku's chakra supply.

Worst of all, she knew the Akatsuki were still out there hunting jinchuriki, and Naruto was out there with them.

Hinata's hand on her elbow pulled her out of her thoughts. "I...that is..." She seemed nervous. "Shino-kun and I may have a way to help you...with your chakra."

Gaara raised one thin eyebrow in question. "I didn't know Shino knew about my problem." She was beginning to think it was not safe for a leaf ninja to be trusted with any kind of secret.

"Ano...um...he's sort of...been keeping watch on us while we train...this whole time."

Gaara let that sink in and it quickly dawned on her. Insects were the perfect spies.

Hinata had her head down. "I should have told you. I only found out after I...after Naruto turned me down."

Gaara shook her head. "It's fine." To be truthful, she might have done the same thing in the Aburame heir's position. It was particularly understandable since she was now aware of the taciturn insect user's feelings for Hinata.

Hinata seemed a bit relieved and pressed on with her idea. "Shino-kun was telling me about the kikaichu, things most people don't know about them." She hesitated, obviously trying not to betray information that had been told to her in confidence. "He says they can create their own chakra pathways within a person's body."

The redhead was intrigued but she had the feeling there was a catch. "How do they create the pathways?" She asked curiously, wondering if it worked like medical ninjutsu or something similar.

Hinata grimaced. "You...um...you would have to let them...nest inside you, the way Shino does."

The ex-jinchuriki paled. She had lived her whole life with another creature using her as a host. She was only just beginning to understand what it meant to be free. Not to mention, kikaichu were dangerous creatures to those who didn't know how to control them and she didn't have a clue how that worked. She only knew that it was impossible to become a living hive for them without the ability to communicate with them on some level. The Aburame clan guarded that particular secret carefully and she couldn't believe they would allow her to learn even a small part of it.

Hinata pressed on. "I don't know all the details. Shino said you could talk to him if you were interested."

Gaara hesitated. She needed to reconnect with her stronger chakra network, but she wasn't sure about this method. "I...want to keep trying on my own for now." She said slowly. "I'd like to find out more though, in case I change my mind."

Hinata nodded. "Shino is home today. We can go over there if you want to."

The redhead nodded. It wouldn't hurt anything to talk with the insect user, even if she decided not to take him up on his offer. She couldn't afford to dismiss any possible solution out of hand.

* * *

The pair made their way to the secluded Aburame complex without further conversation. Gaara was lost in thought, arguing with herself about the wisdom of even considering allowing something to take up residence in her body ever again.

Hinata wasn't sure if Gaara was upset with her for refusing to break Naruto's confidence, or for hiding the fact that Shino was spying on them through his insects, or if the redhead's silent treatment was simply a symptom of her current mental state. The sensitive Hyuuga girl had noticed that Gaara often got quieter when she was trying to deal with her emotions.

* * *

It was something of a relief to both of them when they reached the closed wooden gates. Hinata pulled a cord and a chime sounded inside the walls. A few moments later the gates swung ponderously open and a young girl greeted them with a bow. Her sunglasses were tinted dark purple and her brown hair hung in a braid nearly down to her knees. She wore a heavy coat as was typical of Aburame ninjas but, aside from her eyes, her face was clearly visible above a stiff mandarin collar.

"The Aburame clan welcomes our honored guests. How can I help you?" She chirped in a well rehearsed manner as she popped back up.

The girl wore no leaf insignia so Gaara assumed she wasn't yet a genin. From the look of her the redhead didn't think she could be more than eight or nine years old. Hinata seemed to know her because she smiled brightly.

"Hello Suzume-chan. How are you?" The Hyuuga heiress greeted pleasantly. "We'd like to speak to Shino-kun. Is he home?"

The semi-formal mannerisms dropped at once and the child bounced on her toes with a grin. "I'm fine Hinata-sempai. Shino-sama is in the garden, I think. I can take you to him. Guess what Shino-sama taught me to do! Now I know how to get my kikaichu to track my cat. Now she can't run away anymore." Her beaming smile showed a hole where one of her baby teeth had fallen out.

Hinata smiled back fondly as she followed the energetic young girl into the complex. Gaara trailed behind them silently, observing the child with mild amusement. She sort of reminded the redhead of Naruto when he was younger. 'For that matter, Naruto still gets that excited sometimes, though he has grown up a lot.'

The trio followed the winding trails through the Aburame's lush gardens, finally arriving in a small clearing. Shino was there, sitting on a time worn bench in the midst of a swarm of butterflies. The colorful creatures fluttered off as the insect ninja noticed their arrival, responding to some unseen signal from the heavily covered leaf chunin.

Suzume bowed rapidly to the family heir but popped back up grinning within moments. "You've got visitors Shino-sama."

"I can see that, Suzume." The stoic young man pointed out dryly. "Thank you. You may go."

Suzume nodded and bobbed lightning quick bows to the two girls before darting off back towards the gates. "Bye Hinata-sempai! Bye Hinata-sempai's friend!"

Gaara watched her go curiously.

"Please excuse my cousin." Shino said politely. "She's only seven."

Gaara nodded agreeably.

"So, I take it Hinata told you about my offer."

The redhead nodded again. "I'm not sure it is the right thing for me to do but I want to know more about how it could work." She said slowly.

Shino stood and began to walk. "We should go somewhere more private to talk." He explained. He had expected the cautious young Kazekage to have questions.

Gaara followed the shrouded boy but Hinata held back. Shino stopped when he noticed the navy haired teen wasn't following.

"You are welcome to join us, Hinata-chan." He offered stiffly, the endearment slipping out seemingly by accident.

The violet eyed girl blushed but hurried to catch up with the other two. She was unsurprised when they arrived at Shino's home but he lead them away from the familiar areas of the house into some sort of dojo. They then passed through a series of small chambers to a spartan and windowless room.

"This room is secure against anyone overhearing what we discuss." Shino assured his guests, taking a seat on one of the cushions scattered around the floor.

Gaara sat down facing the insect user and Hinata took a seat off to the side.

"What would you like to know?" Shino asked once they were all settled.

"Hinata tells me the kikaichu can create chakra pathways for me. How do you know that will work to let me reach my barred chakra system?" The redhead started with the most important quuestion in her mind.

"Kikaichu are drawn to chakra like a shark to blood in the water." He hesitated, not sure the desert dweller would be familiar with the habits of sea creatures but Gaara nodded in understanding so he pressed on. "The stronger the chakra, the more they'll be drawn to it. I am certain that if we introduce them into your accessible chakra system, they'll be inevitably drawn to the stronger one. When they travel from one to the other it will leave a pathway you should be able to pull the chakra through."

Gaara let the explanation sink in for a moment. 'He sounds very sure that it will work. That makes it a better chance than anything else I've come up with.' She moved on to the next question in her mind. "How long would the process take?"

Shino thought the question over. "You would most likely have access to your full chakra reserves in a matter of hours. However, becoming a host for the kikaichu is a painful process. You might not be able to stand to move for several days as they establish their hive and there is a very small chance that the kikaichu could reject you as a host."

Gaara refused to give in to the urge to shudder, not wanting to offend her host or his family. She wasn't disgusted by the idea of people letting bugs live inside their bodies. She seen stranger things, but she didn't want anything else using her that way. Shukaku living inside her had been excruciatingly painful at times but he had always felt like a part of her. This was something else entirely.

"What happens if they reject me?"

"It only happens to about one in twenty candidates but the kikaichu will begin to attack your chakra. There will be several Aburame elders, including my father, on hand to ensure your safety if that should occur. No one has died from a rejection in four generations."

Gaara set that possibility aside. "How long would the hive have to remain?"

Shino seemed surprised at the question but he recovered quickly. "Indefinitely." He said simply before going on to explain. "The kikaichu's chakra pathways degrade in just a few days if they don't remain in use."

The ex-jinchuriki kept her expression blank but her mind rebelled at the idea of permanently becoming host to a swarm of creatures. Maybe she was being irrational, but she couldn't help but compare the beetles to the one tail. Shukaku had used her, controlled her, changed her into something that suited his needs with no regard for her wishes. Fighting his will had left her emotionally cold and distant, afraid to let people really get close to her lest she lose control and hurt them. She could not go through that again.

Shino tried to reassure her. "It would not need to be a large hive. Nothing like my family uses to fight. A group of kikaichu can remain viable with as few as fifty insects in a hive."

"How would I control them?" She found herself asking, even though she didn't think she could go through with it anymore. She still wanted to have all the facts.

"If you accept our offer, my father has agreed to allow me to teach you the basics." The insect ninja bowed. "If you will have me as a teacher."

'So the clan head has agreed to this as well.' She wasn't overly surprised. Shino was a stickler for rules. "What does the Aburame clan have to gain by sharing their skills? I've never heard of anyone outside this family being allowed to learn the secrets you are offering me."

"Konoha has never been stronger than it is right now, and our treaty with Sunagakure is one of the pillars of that strength. It is well known that you are one of the strongest supporters of the treaty. It would benefit Konoha if you retain your title and remain Kazekage." Shino held up his hand to show he wasn't done with his reasons. "Secondly, the Aburame clan would grow in reputation if it were to become known that the Kazekage was a practitioner of our skills." He hesitated, taking a breath. "And finally, by all accounts you are a just and fair leader, a hard worker, and a good friend. You earned the respect of your nation despite strong resistance. You deserve better than Suna's council would give you, better than letting the Akatsuki win."

Gaara was touched by the passion the usually quiet youth spoke with but she had one more question. "How does it feel?"

The hooded teen thought the question over carefully. He had been host to the kikaichu since he was a little over a year old. He barely remembered a time when they weren't a part of him. "I...I'm sorry. It's hard to say. They've been with me so long I don't really remember what it was like to be without them. Perhaps you should ask Suzume. She's only had her hive for about a year."

The redhead nodded. She took a moment to let the whole idea sink in, not wanting to give in to her immediate urge to reject the whole plan. Still, she didn't think she could do it. "May I take time to think about it?" She asked slowly.

"Of course." Shino nodded. He would have been shocked if the sand ninja had done otherwise.

Gaara stood. "Thank you, Shino-san. It means a great deal to me that your family has made me such a generous offer. I will consider it."

* * *

The pensive redhead let Hinata lead the way as the pair left the Aburame household. The Hyuuga heiress knew Gaara had a lot to think about so she didn't press the girl to talk as they walked back towards their favorite training area. She was a little startled when the shorter teen broke the silence with a question.

"Would you do it?"

"Hmm..." Hinata didn't have to ask what the redhead meant. "I don't know. I trust Shino-kun with my life and I do think he believes it will solve your problem, but I don't know if I could go through with it if I were in your position." She shrugged slightly, wishing she could be more helpful.

The ex-jinchuriki nodded.

"So do you still want to train today?" The shy teen asked with a friendly smile.

"Actually, I promised my sister I'd talk to her about...something." Gaara admitted. "See you tomorrow?"

Hinata nodded. "Yes, see you then."

The redhead flitted away, taking to the rooftops to avoid the early afternoon crowds. It was time to talk with her sister. The longer she put it off, the more nervous she got about it so there was simply no sense in waiting. Besides, now she also needed to discuss Shino's suggestion with the older girl. Perhaps the pigtailed blonde could provide some perspective on the situation.

To be continued...

Author's Note: Well Naruto is now off on his mission. While he's gone I'll mostly be following Gaara's activities in the village. I'm sure you are all wondering a lot of things...What sort of betrothal necklace will our fox boy come up with (I actually have that all planned out now, sorry to those who wanted to help design it)? How will Temari and Gaara's conversation about Naruto's sand necklace go? What will the eldest Suna sibling have to say about Shino's suggestion? Will Gaara go through with it? Is Kankuro ever going find out about all of this? Will Gaara be able to sleep without her snuggly Naruto? What will happen to our favorite hyperactive jinchuriki out in the wide and dangerous world? All manner of questions that need answering and the answers to them will be coming soon. Please review! (Oh, and tell me if you find any typos please! Thanks)


	21. Chapter 21: Family Matters

Author's Note: This chapter is short but important. I hope you enjoy it. Please review! Thanks!

Sandstorms and Falling Leaves

Chapter 21: Family Matters

Gaara entered the apartment she shared with her sister slowly. The girl in question was in the living room, polishing her smaller fans. The redhead knew those fans hadn't been used in months. It was just something to pass the time. Temari was waiting for her.

That hypothesis was reinforced when the wind user set the fans aside as soon as the younger girl entered the room.

"You ready to talk now?"

Gaara nodded and sat stiffly in the chair opposite the older girl.

"Okay then, talk." Temari sat back and crossed her arms. She had decided to let Gaara explain at her own pace in the hopes of preventing any more panic attacks from the younger girl.

The ex-jinchuriki took a few moments to compose her thoughts before she began. "I made Naruto a betrothal necklace."

The older teen nodded, she had figured that much out. "I noticed."

"I didn't intend to give it to him right away. I was merely trying to be prepared if he ever asked me..." She blushed faintly.

Temari leaned forward in her chair, unable to contain her questions. "Then why did you give it to him and not tell him what it was?"

Gaara frowned and looked away from her sister's searching gaze. "I gave it to him because I had made it for him, but I don't think he'll ask me to marry him...at least not anytime soon." She shrugged slightly.

The pigtailed blonde sighed. 'If only you knew the truth, Sis.' Still it wasn't her place to spoil the leaf ninja's surprise so she had to come up with some other way to soothe her sister's self esteem issues. "Why not? You're a catch! You're smart, brave, strong, and beautiful. You can cook, you're great at diplomacy, and you can fight. You're fiercely protective of the people you care about and he should count himself lucky to be part of that group. I certainly do. Oh, and you became the leader of an entire ninja village at fifteen years old! Naruto would be crazy not to jump at the chance to marry you before someone else tries to sweep you off your feet."

Gaara found a small smile beginning at the corner of her mouth. Temari's words were almost an echo of Naruto's declaration the night before, though her sister wasn't as sweet. They reminded her of the sleepy answer to her whispered proposal and suddenly she didn't feel nearly so foolish for giving Naruto the sand flower necklace.

"I did ask him..." She said quietly, needing to tell someone about it.

Temari froze in shock, her mouth open to continue speaking.

Gaara looked away sheepishly. "He was asleep, so I don't think he remembers...but he said yes."

The blonde grinned and shook her head fondly. "Of course he said yes. I told you he'd be stupid not too. You should have asked when he was awake, baka."

The redhead stayed silent, considering the possible outcomes of that action.

The fan wielder shrugged, mildly exasperated. "Well, don't worry about it. I'm sure he'll get around to asking you eventually."

The ex-jinchuriki felt a flicker of hope at her sister's confidence. Temari was generally better at reading people's social cues than she was, so if the blonde felt that Naruto really would want to marry her then maybe there was hope.

Temari's next words made the pale redhead go positively white. "Of course, he would have to discuss it with Kankuro first."

Gaara hadn't given that custom much thought. It wasn't an issue from her side of things, since Naruto had no living relatives that he knew of. The fact that Kankuro would stand in loco parentis to give his blessing on her engagement was more than a bit unsettling. Her brother was too protective of her by far, especially since the Akatsuki.

"Do you think he'd say no?" She asked thoughtfully.

Temari shrugged. "I couldn't say." She could actually guess but she didn't want to spoil their brother's fun. "It'll be up to Naruto to convince him when the time comes."

The tense redhead seemed to relax a bit at that. 'Naruto can be very convincing.'

Temari watched her sister's subtle shift in expression with satisfaction. She had managed to get some good information for Naruto, if she could manage to get it to him wherever he was, and she'd helped her sister with her persistent self esteem issues. All together she called that a successful discussion. She reached for her fans to finish cleaning them, couldn't leave the job half done after all.

Gaara wasn't finished yet though. "I need to talk to you about something else."

The blonde sat forward in her chair curiously. "Okay."

"I...haven't really discussed the problems I've had with my training since I...lost Shukaku." The redhead had learned quickly that any mention of her brief but untimely death had an immediate and negative effect on her siblings' moods so she tried to skirt around the subject.

Temari still frowned at the reminder.

The redhead pressed on hastily, explaining her dual chakra network and her failure to reach the stronger secondary system without losing control of her emotions.

Temari scowled when the younger girl had finished explaining. "Let me get this straight. The one tail radically remodeled your chakra system to suit itself but didn't connect the two networks so now you can't reach the majority of your chakra."

"I strongly doubt Shukaku expected to be ripped from my body, so it isn't really his fault." The redhead pointed out evenly, unsure why her oldest sibling seemed to be getting so upset about it. 'He especially would never have guessed I could survive after the extraction. As far as I know, no one else ever has.'

"That's not the point!"

"No it isn't." The ex-jinchuriki agreed calmly. "I needed you to know that, so I could discuss a possible method for...curing my problem."

Temari took a few deep breaths, wishing not for the first time that their father was alive again so she could kill him herself. The harm he had done to their family was deplorable, but the atrocity he had forced upon Gaara was inexcusable. 'All because he couldn't stand having another girl.' She forced those thoughts away, knowing they'd do nothing to calm her anger, and focused instead on what her little sister wanted to tell her.

Gaara pressed on when she felt she had the older girl's attention once more. "Shino-san and his family have offered to allow me to learn part of their clan jutsu. He says the kikaichu can make a bridge between my chakra systems for me...if I let them use me as a host."

Temari felt her insides squirm a bit at the idea. "For how long?" She asked, unknowingly echoing the redhead's question from earlier in the day.

"Permanently."

The blonde girl blanched. "Are...are you going to do it?"

The younger teen shrugged slightly. "I don't know. Should I?"

Temari shook her head. "No way. The last thing you need is something else living inside you. That's what got you...nearly got you killed." She hurried to correct herself as her words sent a stab of guilt through her heart. She was the oldest. It was her job to protect her younger siblings. However it seemed she was destined to fail continuously with Gaara.

Gaara was inclined to agree to some extent but she did feel compelled to point out the flaw in her sister's logic. "It's not the same."

"They're parasites, Gaara." Temari insisted. She didn't have any problem with Shino or his family jutsu but she couldn't shake the idea of Gaara going back to the way she was with Shukaku. Even after the redhead had gained control over the monster inside her she'd been so much more reserved than a thirteen year old should have had to be. Gaara deserved to be free to be her own person. "The last thing you need is something feeding off you. Tell me you aren't going to do it."

Gaara listened to her sister's reasoning, noting that it somewhat echoed her own. Still, she needed to keep her options open. "Not unless I have to." She promised.

Temari sighed, knowing that was as good as she was going to get from the younger girl.

* * *

Gaara put off going to sleep that night until well after her sister had retired to her own room. The older girl had reiterated her offer to share her bed and find out if her company could keep the nightmares away but the redhead had refused. She wasn't going to have someone there every night to keep the nightmares at bay for the rest of her life.

It was time to face her problems head on, starting with sleep.

She climbed into her narrow bed and closed her eyes, but sleep was slow in coming. Her thoughts drifted to the young man she had grown to love and she wondered what he was doing. Was he safe? Did he miss her?

She finally drifted off, his name a whisper on her lips. "Naruto."

To Be Continued...

Author's Note: Kind of a short chapter but it didn't really work as part of the next section so there you have it. Before anyone can protest, no I don't think the kikaichu are anything like having a demon beast sealed inside you. I doubt Gaara would have any trouble controlling them should she decide to go through with it, but neither Gaara nor her sister are feeling very rational on the subject right now. We'll see if they change their minds. Next chapter: Will our little redhead figure out how to sleep on her own? Can anyone help her? Desperate measures may have to be taken.


	22. Chapter 22: Gaara: Waking Hours

Auhor's Note: *huggles* New chapter! Yay!

Sandstorms and Falling Leaves

Chapter 22: Gaara: Waking Hours

Gaara jolted awake, sitting up in her bed and searching her dimly lit room for any sign of danger. Finding none, she lay back down, glancing out the window before forcing her eyes to shut once more. 'Just three more hours until dawn.' She told herself wearily.

Naruto had been gone a little over a week and she had developed a nightly routine. Determined not to let her nightmares affect her health she would make herself go to sleep a little after midnight. Then she'd wake up in a cold sweat about an hour later. After a few minutes to calm her racing heart, she'd force herself to go back to sleep. The process would repeat until dawn when she'd finally allow herself to get up for the day.

The only problem with her new sleep schedule was the fact that she wasn't really getting much rest from it at all. If her sister's concerned glances, and Hinata's cautious suggestion for them to cut back on training for a while, were any indication, Gaara figured she must be well on her way to looking as bad as she did before the first night she spent with Naruto.

'And I have no idea how to fix it.' She admitted to herself tiredly, allowing aqua eyes to open in the darkness of her room.

She couldn't discuss the problem with either of her siblings. They both still felt too much undeserved guilt over the situation as it was. She didn't dare tell Hinata about her memories, it would be wrong to inflict that kind of horror on the gentle leaf chunin. None of her subordinates could know either, since she needed them to be confident in her.

She pondered the problem until she fell asleep again, jolting out of images of leering Akatsuki laughing at her as she screamed and looking to her window to gauge the time. 'Two more hours.' She decided, closing her eyes and letting the nightmares claim her once more.

* * *

Midmorning the next day found her waiting outside the Hokage's office. After several hours that morning trying to decide who to consult about her sleeping problem, Tsunade seemed like the only logical choice. The woman was familiar with nearly the whole situation already, and she wasn't as emotionally invested in it as most of the other candidates.

Shizune had taken one sharp eyed look at the pale redhead and offered her a chair before going to alert the Hokage of her visitor.

After about ten minutes the dark haired woman opened the office door and bowed respectfully. "Kazekage, the Hokage will see you now."

Gaara nodded to the woman as she passed, waiting until the office doors had been pulled closed behind the Hokage's personal assistant before she moved towards the desk and the buxom blonde behind it.

Tsunade set her paperwork aside and studied the petite young woman for a few seconds. "You look terrible." She said bluntly.

Gaara wasn't overly surprised to hear it but it did make her wonder how the older woman made it through diplomatic meetings.

"Let me guess, you're not sleeping again, ne?"

The redhead nodded stiffly, squashing her pride to admit even that much.

"You ready to talk about it?"

Her only answer was another sharp nod.

The taller woman stood and moved from behind her desk with a sigh. "What am I gonna do with you..." She muttered, gesturing for the ex-jinchuriki to sit on the couch she kept for naps when Shizune wasn't watching.

Gaara sat, her hands clenched at her sides the only outward sign of the turmoil she was feeling. Now that she had committed to talking to the older woman about her nightmares, she honestly wasn't sure she could get the words out.

Fortunately, Tsunade seemed to sense her discomfort as she took time to perform a simple medical scan instead of pressing the teen to start talking right away.

"Well, you seem to be doing better than you were the last time I checked you, but there are definite signs of sleep deprivation beginning to show." The med-nin announced as she finished.

"I have nightmares." The redhead finally forced the words out determinedly.

Tsunade nodded encouragingly.

"I remember everything...about the Akatsuki ritual." She didn't go into details as she had with Naruto. Some things were too painful to share a second time.

Brown eyes widened at the implications of that quiet admission.

"I wake up every hour and sometimes it takes a long time to get back to sleep. I haven't slept through the night since..." She found herself blushing.

"Since Naruto left." Tsunade finished, rescuing the younger girl from the embarrassing words.

A deepening of the pink tint in the younger girl's cheek was confirmation enough for the older woman.

"I didn't think about your situation when I gave him that mission." The older woman frowned.

"It's fine." The redhead insisted.

The med-nin started to say something else but the younger girl cut her off.

"I need to learn to sleep on my own."

Tsunade nodded slowly. "Okay...what have you tried?"

Gaara's smooth features slipped into a frown and she had to bite back a sigh. "Everything." She said grimly. "That's why I came to you."

Tsunade let out the sigh the redhead wouldn't allow, she eyed the younger girl thoughtfully for a moment before slapping her knee suddenly and rising to her feet. She walked over to a blank stretch of her office wall and performed a complicated set of hand signs before laying her hand on a nearly imperceptible divot in the smooth plaster. The beige wall seemed to dissolve beneath her fingers until she stood facing a narrow hallway.

"Come on." She called, not bothering to look back to see if the younger kage was following.

Gaara hesitated only a moment before moving into the narrow corridor. She had come to the older woman for help. That meant she was going to have to trust her.

A few moments later, they emerged into a cluttered private office, obviously not intended for visiting heads of state to ever see. Piles of scrolls and books littered the desk's surface along with hand scrawled notes on various topics.

The blonde gestured for the redhead to sit. It took a few moments but Gaara managed to uncover a wooden chair under a pile of old mission reports. Taking her seat, she watched the taller woman search through a wall of books behind her desk for several minutes. Finally, the buxom hokage seemed to find what she was looking for.

Tsunade pulled a heavy volume from the shelf and held it out to the waiting redhead. "These are all the studies I've compiled on sleep and sleep disorders." She explained simply.

Gaara took the proffered book in both hands and looked it over curiously. It appeared to be written in the Hokage's own hand writing and had loose pages stuck in where the older woman had run out of room to get her thoughts down on various topics.

"Look it over and come back to me if you find anything that sounds promising to you or if you have any questions." The older woman had decided to let the petite teen do her own research rather than trying to pull more information from her. It would allow the redhead to feel she was doing something about the problem for herself which would be easier on the girl's pride. It would also allow Tsunade time to try to come up with another option in case nothing in the heavy tome worked. "I'll let you know if I think of anything else."

Gaara nodded and stood. "Thank you." She offered stiffly.

Tsunade waved off the courtesy as unnecessary before standing herself and leading the way back down the narrow hallway to her public office. Once there she showed the worn looking ex-jinchuriki out, closed off the secret passage to her study, and then flopped into her desk chair with a sigh.

'That kid just can't catch a break.' She thought with a small frown as she considered all the odds against the displaced Kazekage. Still, adversity had made the petite redhead strong before her kidnapping. The blonde had no doubt that the girl could overcome the new odds with the same determination. 'She actually sort of reminds me of Naruto that way. Neither of them knows how to give up when it's hopeless.' The comparison brought a grin to the blonde's face as she shook off her musings and go back to work.

* * *

Gaara took the large tome back to her apartment, heading straight to her room and laying the heavy volume on her desk before opening it.

'Sleepwalking...sleep talking...sleep apnea...snoring...' She skimmed the first few pages, deciding they did not apply to her situation but she hesitated on the section for insomnia. 'No.' She decided after considering the topic for a minute. 'It isn't that I'm not tired or can't go to sleep. I just can't stay asleep for long.'

She continued to page through the book for several more minutes, dismissing topics that didn't apply to her and reading over the few she thought might be pertinent. Still, she found nothing helpful.

'Night terrors?' She read the title of the section hopefully. Her dreams were certainly terrifying. She read over the notes with interest but shook her head as more and more features did not line up with her problem. 'No.'

Moving on, she skimmed through several more topics before coming across a large section titled, Chronic Nightmares. That looked promising. The petite redhead began to read over the text but her eyelids were feeling heavy and she soon found herself nodding off.

She shook her head to clear it and rubbed her eyes wearily. She just wanted to read the first few pages on that subject before she stopped.

* * *

Temari peeked into her younger sister's room to see if the redhead wanted any lunch. The sight in front of her made a small smile spread over the wind user's face. Gaara was fast asleep with her head propped on one hand and her elbow on her desk next to a large book.

The blonde didn't want to wake the sleeping girl so she started to pull the door closed silently. A small noise from Gaara made her pause. She looked back over at the snoozing teenager, thinking she might have woken up but the redhead was still clearly asleep. Temari frowned, something had changed; where her sister's features had been smooth in sleep, now they were tight in distress. The redhead's mouth moved but no sound came out save for small moans that might have been words but were too low to make out.

"Gaara." Temari called out, moving into the room as she spoke. "Wake up, Sis. You're dreaming."

The redhead seemed not to hear her, deep in the throes of her nightmare. The older girl stood frozen in indecision as she watched the redhead struggle with foes that were only present in her mind.

Suddenly, Gaara shot upright with a strangled noise that might have been a scream if she had let it out. She banged her shin hard on the desk as she nearly fell from her chair in her hurry to escape the terrors in her dreams. The pain actually seemed to help her clear her mind as she looked around warily.

She spotted the still frozen blonde and frowned, clearly not happy to have company.

"I was...just going to ask if you wanted lunch." Temari explained, choosing not to address the scene she had just witnessed.

"I..." The redhead cleared her throat and tried again. "I'm not hungry."

"Oh...okay." The elder girl nodded and hurried from the room, trying to save her baby sister's pride and honestly unsure what else she could do. Gaara had made it clear that she didn't want to share the burden of her nightmares with her family. That was a dubious honor reserved for Naruto.

* * *

Gaara took a few moments to compose herself before standing and leaving the apartment through her window to avoid confronting her sister. She took to the rooftops and headed for the cliffs above the village. The fresh air often helped to clear the last remnants of her dreams from her mind.

Only when she stood poised on top of the massive stone faces of Konoha's leaders did she stop and try to relax. Looking out over the village and beyond to the forest, she found her thoughts wandering to Naruto.

'Where are you now?' She wondered, watching the horizon as if she could see the yellow haired teen if she just looked hard enough.

To Be Continued...

Author's Note: It isn't super long but it is a new chapter and I hope you all like it. The next chapter is about Naruto. After some suggestions from reviewers I have decided to try and alternate chapters between our heroes until they are back together. Naruto's chapters will likely be a bit short because I don't want to give away everything he's up to but I do think you should see some of what he's thinking while he's away.


	23. Chapter 23 Naruto: Fireside Discussions

Author's Note: New chapter! Yay! Now we get a brief glimpse at Naruto while he's off on his mission.

Sandstorms and Falling Leaves

Chapter 23: Naruto Fireside Discussions

Naruto stared up at the stars, his hands tucked behind his head as he waited for sleep to claim him. The small group had been traveling for three days and he was finding himself oddly homesick. He sighed as he wondered what was going on back in the village.

Sakura was on watch and she turned her attention towards him at the small noise. "Naruto, what is the matter with you?" She asked quietly, not wanting to wake the two jonin or the elderly bridge builder sleeping nearby.

Naruto shrugged. "It's funny. I left the village for over two years and it was great. I mean, sure I wondered about everyone sometimes, but I was learning a lot and I didn't really think about what I was missing very often. Now though...we've only been gone for three days and I can barely think of anything except home."

The pink haired girl nodded. "Well, maybe it's because now you have someone in particular you want to go back to." She suggested with a smile.

A goofy grin spread over the jinchuriki's face and his thoughts were clearly miles away when he replied. "Yeah...I guess that could be it." The jinchuriki blushed slightly at the admission and hoped the pink haired teen wouldn't notice it in the dim light.

Sakura shook her head fondly. As much as Naruto sometimes aggravated her, he was one of her best friends and she was glad he had found someone that made him so happy. 'And at least now he's not chasing after me.' Her inner voice pointed out snidely. Sakura had to agree that was also a plus. Naruto was sweet but there was no way she could ever have felt the sort of affection he had wanted from her. He was more like an annoying little brother as far as she was concerned, despite them being the same age.

Naruto's unusually quiet voice pulled her from her thoughts. "Sakura-chan."

"Yeah?"

"Thanks."

Sakura nodded and the pair fell back into easy silence. The blonde was toying with something on a cord around his neck. 'He's doing it again.' She noted curiously. Sakura had first spotted the tiny glass container when they left the village and she had grown steadily more curious about it as the days passed. Naruto couldn't seem to keep his hands off the pendant whenever they stopped to rest.

"What is that?" She asked, suddenly unable to stand her curiosity anymore.

The jinchuriki's hand froze and he clutched the necklace in his hand as if he thought she might try to snatch it from him. In the flickering from their small fire, the pink haired girl couldn't be totally sure but it looked like her longtime friend was blushing as he replied.

"It's a gift. Gaara gave it to me."

Wheels turned in the highly intelligent leaf ninja's mind. She had studied Suna's customs when Konoha first became allies with the desert village. You never knew when such knowledge might make the difference between a pleasant diplomatic discussion and an international incident. Her eyes widened as the implications of the small gift registered and she fought with herself for a moment over whether she should tell her excitable friend what she knew.

"Naruto...um..."

The blonde sat up in one elbow to see her better and Sakura felt her resolve shake. If Gaara hadn't told him what the necklace meant, then maybe it was nothing but she also knew he shouldn't go around telling people Gaara gave him a necklace because anyone who knew anything about Suna would read into it more than the blonde intended.

"Um...that necklace. In Suna, it's a custom to...ah..."

Naruto smiled crookedly. "Yeah. I know." He said simply, deciding to rescue his flustered friend.

"You know?!" Sakura felt her jaw drop and her eyes bug out. There was no way he knew what she was going to say. He was too calm. Naruo was never so calm about anything to do with girls.

"Temari told me." The chunin confirmed, laying back down and spinning the necklace above his face to let the grains of sand catch the moonlight.

"Then you..." It was too much to process. Naruto could not seriously be engaged. He was barely mature enough to take care of himself, much less a wife.

"It's not official yet. I still have to ask her brother for permission and make her a necklace too." He said slowly. "Gaara...she asked me the night before we left the village." He admitted with a small grin. He didn't add that the sand wielder had thought him too asleep to hear her at the time. In his mind it still counted. "I know we're both still young but Gaara already..." His throat constricted on the words and it took him a moment to force them out. "She died, Sakura. I could have lost her forever before I even knew what I was missing and it nearly broke my heart then. I don't think I could stand to ever lose her now." His eyes brimmed with tears at the memory and he had to fight them back.

Sakura was speechless. Not only was her most hyperactive and sometimes dense friend halfway to getting engaged, he was also totally serious about it. 'He really does love her.' She realized with a start. She had known he was serious about Gaara before but this sort of love was beyond her scope of experience. Even her long held crush on Sasuke paled in comparison to the depth of the emotion should could see and hear from Naruto when he talked about the redheaded Kazekage.

A thousand questions ran through her analytical mind as she went over the complications that could arise from such a high profile marriage between two hidden villages. However, when she finally found her tongue, she asked the only question that mattered. "How can I help?"

Naruto blinked in shock, obviously having expected to need to work harder to convince his longtime teammate that he knew what he was getting into. His dumbstruck look soon morphed into an excited grin as he looked over at her. "I don't know, unless you can help me think of reasons Kankuro should let me marry his sister." He shook his head ruefully, still dreading that conversation more than anything his current mission might throw at him.

Sakura nodded seriously. She could do that. "Sure. I'll see what I can come up with."

Naruto's grin grew even broader and he let his head flop back onto his pallet once more. "Thanks Sakura-chan."

The pink haired girl smiled fondly at her friend and didn't reply as she turned her attention back to her guard duty, now puzzling over the blonde's request in the back of her mind. 'There are bound to be some good reasons they should get married.' She told herself.

Naruto's breathing evened out as he finally fell asleep and she glanced over at the jinchuriki to confirm what her ears had already told her. She smiled again as she noticed the vial of sand was still clutched in the blonde's hand.

'Reason number one: They love each other.' The romantic inside Sakura chimed in. Her more pragmatic side mentally slapped her. 'Baka. Naruto could come up with that much on his own. I can do better.'

To Be Continued...

Author's Note: Naruto is a sneaky little fox, ne? What will Gaara think when she finds out he remembers her proposal after all? Next chapter, back to Gaara to see how her sleep, or lack thereof is going.


	24. Chapter 24: Gaara: Nightmares and Dreams

Author's Note: New Chapter! Back to Gaara this time to see how she's getting along without Naruto to be her snuggle bunny.

Sandstorms and Falling Leaves

Chapter 24: Gaara: Nightmares and Dreams

Gaara rubbed her aching eyes and studied the blurring words of Tsunade's book for what seemed like the hundredth time. In the week since she had been lent the heavy tome, the redhead had poured over the book for hours every day. She had to have read the entire volume at least twice but nothing she had tried had helped her sleep any better. She had even considered using the jutsu that had allowed Shukaku to take control of her body by forcing her to sleep, but she had dismissed the idea as being too dangerous. The jutsu had allowed her to sleep even in the middle of battle and to use it without the one tail would have left her painfully vulnerable to attack. That didn't seem like a good idea in light of the assassination attempts she had already survived in the recent months.

As the words swam in front of her once more, the exhausted teen finally gave in and closed the medical text. She laid her head down on the cool cover of the large volume and closed her eyes with a small frustrated sigh.

"Gaara?" A voice called out to her hesitantly from the doorway and the redhead silently cursed as she was caught off guard.

'That's a good way to end up dead.' She berated herself mentally as she turned to face the thankfully benign intruder. "Hinata." She greeted the girl with a nod, showing no sign of her internal aggravation as she stood.

"Hi. Um...Temari-san let me in." The blue haired teen explained with a sheepish smile. "I was worried when you didn't meet me this morning."

Gaara rubbed the bridge of her nose with one hand wearily. "I'm sorry. I guess time got away from me."

Hinata smiled sweetly. "It's okay." The violet eyed girl seemed to hesitate before she spoke again. "Um...you...You're not sleeping again..." It wasn't a question.

Gaara resisted the urge to glare at her friend, instead going to sit on the edge of her bed and resting her head in her hands.

The Hyuuga heiress took that as answer enough and moved into the room shyly. "Umm..." The teen fidgeted with her hands for a few moments before she worked up the courage to say what she needed to say. "I-I...I used to have n-nightmares." She said finally.

Gaara looked up at the navy haired girl curiously. She hadn't discussed her nightmares with the other girl but she supposed it didn't take a genius to figure out why she had such trouble sleeping.

Hinata took courage when her red haired friend didn't immediately get upset with her for mentioning the subject. "Um...well, you see...when I w-was little, someone tried to kidnap m-me...and for a l-long time after that...I had terrible nightmares. I couldn't sleep much at all."

Gaara blinked but didn't know exactly how to respond. It was rather relieving to find out she wasn't the only one with such problems but at the same time she wasn't sure what point the shy girl was getting at.

Her silence didn't faze the Byakugan user. "So...umm...anyway...I found that it helped me to imagine a better outcome for my dreams before I went to bed...or to think of something else it might be nice to dream about..."

Gaara nodded encouragingly as the girl trailed off.

"It...ah...it didn't work every time but I thought it might help you some." Hinata finished lamely.

The redhead pondered the suggestion thoughtfully. She had seen something similar mentioned briefly in Tsunade's book but it hadn't worked the first time she tried it and it had made her feel rather foolish as well. "Thank you." She said stiffly.

Hinata nodded. "Sure. So...um...do you want to go get some lunch? We've pretty much already skipped training this morning."

Gaara nodded slowly and stood, following the other girl out of the apartment.

* * *

That night the redhead lay down to sleep determined to give Hinata's suggestion a try. Her previous attempt at visualizing better results for her nightmares had failed so this time she tried to think of something to dream of that made her happy instead.

Naruto's grinning face immediately popped into her mind and his mumbled response to her proposal tickled her memory and brought a gentle smile to her face.

'I wonder what sort of wedding we might have...' She thought sleepily, latching on to the idea and beginning to mentally plan the occasion. 'Red flowers...' She decided sleepily. 'Tsunade can officiate...' She pictured Naruto in a tuxedo and the image made her smile once again as she finally drifted off.

* * *

Gaara walked down the aisle, her heavy layered kimono flowing around her feet as she approached the group she could see waiting for her. Kankuro walked beside her in place of the father she didn't miss.

Tsunade stood grinning at her from beneath an arch covered in flowers. The older woman was dressed in her Hokage robes and flanked on one side by Temari and Hinata, but Gaara wasn't paying any of the women much attention.

Her eyes sought out Naruto and his brilliant smile warmed her heart. She took a step towards him...

...and total chaos broke loose. Someone screamed as familiar black cloaked figures seemed to materialize out of nowhere and descend upon the crowd of guests.

Gaara stood frozen for a moment before she forced her body to move forward. She had to get to Naruto, had to protect him. He was what the Akatsuki were after. She spotted him through the struggling knots of people but her heavy clothing slowed her down and Kankuro was trying to pull her away from the battle.

"No! Not again!" The redhead shouted as she shook off the hands clutching at her and ignored her brother's protests, forcing her way through the battle towards her love.

Some part of her mind was trying to tell her that this was only a dream but Gaara ignored it. She had to save Naruto.

Finally, she arrived at the place she had last seen the yellow haired jinchuriki but he was nowhere in sight.

The sand wielder shook her head in denial. Naruto couldn't be gone. The world around her began to fade away, like a fog was rolling in, the battle sounds growing dim as she continued to seek the hyperactive teen.

Suddenly, a hand was on her elbow and she turned to find the blonde grinning at her fondly. "You should know better, Gaara." He told her as he brushed her face with his fingertips. "I'd never leave you behind."

"But you did...you had a mission..." The redhead mumbled as the dream began to merge with reality in her mind.

"I'm still with you, Gaara." The hyperactive teen seemed amused that she didn't understand. "The people we love are always with us, even when they're far away...even when we feel alone. That's why you don't need to worry about losing me anymore."

Gaara blinked, his words making her feel strangely peaceful as the shadowy battle raged on around the young couple.

"The Akatsuki can't win, Gaara." Naruto's grin was back in force. "You should have figured it out by now. For them to win we have to give up."

"You never know when to give up." The redhead said slowly, a crooked little smile trying to make its way onto her face as she remembered seeing the blonde demonstrate that trait several times.

"Exactly." The blonde bounced on his toes and chuckled warmly. "So let's kick their butts, ne?"

Gaara found herself suddenly free of her wedding attire and looked down to find that her burgundy coat had replaced the impractical garment. She hadn't worn the coat since she had returned from the dead because it reminded her too much of her failure but now it felt strangely right.

Naruto too was back in his normal orange outfit and the pair stood back to back as the battle snapped back into focus around them.

Thousands of Naruto clones entered the fray and Gaara felt the sand dance around her with an ease she had not known since her death. She noted other battles turning against the Akatsuki all around her as her friends and family seemed to rally at her return to the fight.

A small, grim smile spread across her features as one Akatsuki after another fell or fled from their combined onslaught.

At last, the battlefield grew still and Naruto was once again at her side. "See."

Gaara nodded and the blonde jinchuriki leaned down to kiss her soundly.

* * *

The redhead did not wake until the sun slanted in through her balcony door and hit her peaceful face.

To Be Continued...

Author's Note: Woohoo! She did it! Gaara slept through the night all on her own. The visualization technique for treating nightmares is a real thing and it has shown positive results in studies. It also works for me, though I never had a name for it. My chosen visualization when I was a kid was always Care Bears or My Little Pony (I just gave away my age, ne?). lol. So, next chapter we'll go back to Naruto to see what he's up to. Please review!


	25. Chapter 25: Naruto: Faith

Sandstorms and Falling Leaves

Chapter 25: Naruto: Faith

Naruto leaned against the wall of the small wooden house they were staying in and looked up at the sky. They had finally arrived in the land of waves but they had yet to encounter the resistance that Tauna insisted was coming.

The hyperactive jinchuriki had been pleased to spend time catching up with the old man at first but now he was beginning to get restless.

'Still, it does give me time to work on this...' The blonde thought with a critical look at the lump of wood in his hand. It didn't really look like anything yet but he was going to do his best to make it into the pendant for a necklace that Gaara would be proud to wear.

He wondered what the redhead was up to, picturing her training with Hinata or eating with her noisy sister and brother.

That's how Sakura found him some time later, a goofy smile on his face as he imagined the progress the determined young woman would no doubt make in his absence.

"Naruto, it's time to go. We've been waiting on you for half an hour. Even Kakashi-sensei is already there!" The pink haired girl fumed.

"Oh, sorry Sakura-chan." The blonde scratched the back of his neck sheepishly.

Sakura glared and nudged the boy none too gently in the direction of the waiting ninjas and their client.

"Sorry." The blonde apologized with a small smile. "I was...uh...thinking."

Sakura snorted and slapped the boy on the back of the head. "Yeah, that explains why it took you so long." She joked fondly.

"Sakura-chan!" The blonde blushed.

"What's that in your hand, Naruto?" Kakashi asked curiously as the younger pair got close.

Naruto hurriedly pocketed the half finished carving. "Nothing." He said, too quickly.

Kakashi was obviously curious but he knew when to bide his time so he let the question go.

The group then set off for the construction area, as they had for the previous several days.

* * *

Naruto watched Tazuna as the elderly man examined his blueprints for the hundredth time that day before giving orders to one of the muscular young men helping him with the construction. The bridge he was working on was actually a series of bridges connecting two smaller islands in a chain to the larger and better supplied island. The bridge was facing heavy opposition from the wealthy land owners on both islands because they claimed their elite communities would be invaded by new settlers from the more crowded large island. However, the poorer residents of the small islands were eager for the construction to finish so they could take advantage of the increased trade and services available on the main island.

'Nothing changes.' The bored jinchuriki thought with a sigh. 'Four years later, different bridge, same story.'

Sakura approached and sat down next to the blonde teen on a pile of building materials. "What's wrong with you?" She asked sharply, having watched her normally hyperactive friend grow steadily more depressed as the days wore on.

"Nothing." Naruto said defensively.

Sakura's expression was dubious and the jinchuriki caved before she could chastise him for lying.

"It's just...this mission, I guess." Naruto said slowly. "So much is the same as the last time we came here, the same as I've seen now a hundred times over. The weak try to make their lives better and the strong try to crush them back down. We help one person or even a whole nation, but there are hundreds more situations just like this that we can't do a thing about. No matter how much we struggle or how much good we do, nothing seems to change."

Sakura sat silent for a moment, absorbing the words she never would have expected from the usually optimistic jinchuriki. She had to agree though, no matter how long they fought or how many successful missions they went on, human nature wouldn't change.

Naruto's bemused voice pulled her from her reflection. "But...I can't seem to stop trying to fix it. No matter how useless it all is, I can't stop." He smiled sadly at her. "I guess I really am an idiot, ne?"

"Well...if you are, then I guess I am too." The pink haired teen smiled fondly back. "Because I'm going to be fighting right beside you all the way."

Naruto chuckled. "Really?"

"Of course!" She grinned crookedly. "But you're wrong about something."

"I am?"

"Yep. We may not be able to change the world, but we do make a difference. Just think of all the people who are alive today because of you. Think of all the people who you've inspired to change their lives for the better."

Naruto shook his head at her words. "I don't get credit for that stuff. People change because they want to, not because of me."

"You really are thick sometimes." The mednin said without any real venom in her tone, slapping the blonde in the back of the head and sending him sprawling.

"Hey, watch it! What was that for?" Naruto asked, rubbing his head as he retook his place.

"Stop moping!" Sakura demanded. "It doesn't suit you! You're Naruto Uzumaki! You don't quit and you don't mope around! If you're going to be Hokage someday you better start acting like it."

Naruto grin grew despite her harsh words. "You're right, Sakura-chan." He said, standing and brushing the dirt from his pants with a grin. "I'm gonna be the next Hokage! Then I'll be able to really fix things so maybe the next generation won't feel the way we do." His mental picture of the future formed in his head as he spoke and his grin grew at the image of his and Gaara's children playing happily.

Sakura smiled, happy to see her friend back to feeling like himself.

"Thanks, Sakura-chan." Naruto grinned.

Sakura nodded. "Don't mention it."

The blonde couldn't tell from her tone if she meant that or not so he decided to err on the side of caution and changed the subject. "I'm gonna scout the perimeter again."

Naruto bounded away, splitting into several shadow clones to make the task go faster as he moved out of sight.

Sakura sat under the tree, lost in thought for a few minutes.

"Naruto really has grown up these last few years, ne?" Kakashi's even voice startled the mednin out of her thoughts as the jonin seemed to appear on the other side of the tree without warning.

"Yeah. I guess he really has." Sakura agreed thoughtfully. "I'm just not sure I was ready for that to happen." She admitted sheepishly. Naruto's confidence was her constant, her anchor in an unstable world. To see his childlike faith in himself shaken was disconcerting.

"Aa..." The silver haired man agreed, thinking of the nearly out of control, attention starved orphan that had been placed under his watch at the age of twelve. That boy was slowly growing into a powerful, kind hearted, confident young man. One Kakashi was proud to have had even a small role in molding.

"He'll make a great Hokage someday, ne?" Sakura said with a small smile.

"Aa, soo desu ne." The jonin agreed quietly before moving off to talk with Tazuna and the other workers.

To Be Continued...

Author's note: Short chapter...I can't wait to get our heroes back together so I don't feel the need to break the chapters up like this. Still, Naruto got all introspective and serious on me there. That was weird but I think it shows he's really growing up, even if he remains outwardly the same knucklehead everyone expects him to be most of the time. Anywho...next chapter we'll go back to Konoha and see what Gaara's up to. Just a few more weeks to cover before Naruto comes home. What will be waiting for him?


	26. Chapter 26: Gaara: Women are Strange

Author's Note: New chapter! Yay! It's even a fairly long one too. This one is much lighter in tone overall and I hope you like it. I figured we could use a break from the angst though a bit crept in despite my intentions. Oops. Well, please review and let me know what you think! I'm feeling a bit disheartened though I do appreciate the reviews I have gotten on the last few chapters.

Sandstorms and Falling Leaves

Chapter 26: Gaara: Women are Strange

Gaara looked at the simple invitation that Hinata had handed her warily. "Ino...wants me to come sleep at her house? Why?" She asked slowly, not sure she had heard the blue haired teen correctly.

"Well...umm...not just you, but yes. That's what a sleepover is, ne?" Hinata said, smiling happily. "Haven't you ever been to one before?"

Gaara blinked. "No." She said simply.

Comprehension seemed to dawn in Hinata's violet eyes and she blushed. "Oh, right...I guess you wouldn't have...since people thought you were a boy and...um...well, it's something mostly girls do. I really hope you'll come though. It'll be more fun with you there." The Hyuuga heiress always felt a little out of place among the more boisterous girls her age. At least with Gaara there, she would almost definitely still have someone to talk with if the other girls got out of hand.

Gaara tilted her head. Hinata's reasoning both amused and astounded the ex-jinchuriki. The reason she'd never been invited to a sleepover before was more likely because the other children had been terrified of her, and not without reason. Well, that, and because until recently she didn't sleep without a monster coming out of her to wreak havoc on the surrounding countryside. The redhead didn't bother to correct the logic though, sometimes she appreciated Konoha's residents more because they all seemed to have not only accepted her as a friend and ally, but many of them seemed also to have forgotten that she was ever anything but the person she was now. It was a truly remarkable feeling to be so totally forgiven for her past mistakes.

Hinata was smiling encouragingly at her, obviously expecting some sort of response.

"I suppose I have no reason not to go." She said after several more moments in thought.

"Great." Hinata beamed and Gaara found herself pleased to have made her friend so happy, though she was still feeling trepidatious about the event in question.

"Who else will be there?" She asked, still looking over the simple invitation like she expected it to disappear at any moment.

"Ino, of course." Hinata said, holding up fingers as she listed off the people she knew would attend. "Me, you, Temari, Tenten..." The girl thought for a moment. "That's probably everyone since Sakura is on a mission." Hinata frowned sheepishly. "Not that Sakura would have come anyway...she...well, um...she and Ino don't really...socialize very well with each other."

The redhead suppressed a smirk. From what she had seen, that was a massive understatement about the two rival leaf kunoichis.

"Anyway, I know Ino will be thrilled to hear you're coming." The shy girl said happily.

"Hn." Gaara said. It was an acknowledgement of her friends excitement, though she still wasn't sure this sleepover was a good idea. 'Especially when I only started actually sleeping by myself last week.' Her mind chimed in but she squashed the voice down immediately. 'Hinata really wants me to go, and Temari will be there too, so it should be fine.'

* * *

The following evening found the redhead and her sister outside the Yamanaka home.

"Are you sure about this?" Temari asked the younger girl for the tenth time that day. "I mean...Ino is nice and all but she's really nosy..."

Gaara's only reply to the question was to reach out and knock firmly on the door to the home above the flower shop Ino's family owned.

* * *

Ino darted down the stairs to the door as soon as she heard the knock. She had planned the slumber party because the younger kunoichis of the village hadn't had much time to hang out together in several months. At least that is what she told her friends. To Ino, a sleepover was an information gathering jackpot. She hadn't been able to really keep up with the gossip in the village with all the responsibilities she had taken on during the chunin exam, so this would hopefully allow her to catch up. She was even more excited about this particular evening because Gaara and Temari were going to attend. She had the feeling that the redhead had been actively avoiding talking to her but that was going to change tonight.

The blonde leaf kunoichi smiled brightly as she opened the door to find the very guests she was thinking of. "Welcome!" She chirped brightly. "Come on in. The others will be here soon."

The pair of sand ninjas followed the exuberant leaf up the short flight of stairs to the apartment she shared with her parents.

"Can I get you anything? There are snacks on the table in the kitchen and I have soda, tea, milk, or water to drink."

"No." The redhead said slowly. "Thank you." She added after a moment's hesitation.

"I'm good." Temari said with a smile to make up for her baby sister's lack of enthusiasm.

"Okay." Ino smiled back, not at all put off by Gaara's awkwardness. "Oh, before I forget, Temari-san." She pulled a note from her pocket and held it out to the older blonde with a sly grin. "From Shikamaru."

Temari blushed but took the note quickly. "That lazy jerk can't even come see me when he needs to talk to me now." She rolled her eyes to hide her embarrassment as she eagerly tore into the envelope and looked over the contents. Her look of feigned irritation faded as she read and she found herself smiling stupidly at the brief missive by the time she was done.

"Well...what did it say?" Ino asked, trying to look over the taller blonde's shoulder.

"He..." Temari's smile turned into a bright grin. "He's finally asked the Hokage to make him a jonin."

Gaara's eyes lit up with comprehension as she recalled the conversation she had overheard between the lazy leaf ninja and his large friend.

Ino blinked. "He did?" She was shocked that her teammate had not let any word of his intent to do so slip to her, but then she remembered exactly who they were talking about. Shikamaru might be lazy but he could be as sneaky as the shadows he wielded if he felt the effort was warranted. What the nosy leaf kunoichi couldn't figure out was what had made him put forth that effort.

"It's about time too." Temari groused, trying to cover her excitement with her usual attitude.

The corner of Gaara's lip twitched in the tiniest of smiles at her sister's poorly concealed joy. 'Perhaps I'm not the only one in the family who has been contemplating marriage.'

Ino seemed decidedly confused and slightly put out by that state but she quickly shook herself out of it, not wanting to spoil the fun she had planned for the evening.

'Besides, maybe I can get Temari to explain it to me later.' She thought with a smile as she ran to answer the door again, leaving the two Sand ninjas alone for just a moment before returning with a stammering Hinata in tow.

"Th-thank you again f-for inviting m-me, Ino-san." Hinata smiled sheepishly.

"Of course, Hinata-chan. Old school friends have to hang out every now and then. How else are we going to keep up with what's going on in each other's lives, ne?" Ino smiled, with just the tiniest glint in her eyes as she thought about all the gossip she was going to hear.

"Ano...I guess so..." Hinata nodded slowly. She seemed to take notice of Gaara and Temari for the first time and her smile grew at the sight of the redhead. "Gaara-chan. I'm so glad you could come, and Temari-san too." She nodded a greeting to the older girl and moved to stand next to the stone faced exjinchuriki, seeming to relax a bit in Gaara's presence.

Ino noted the interaction with interest. 'I knew Hinata was helping Gaara train but I didn't know they'd become such good friends.' She thought to herself.

The sound of someone knocking at the door sounded once again and Ino was forced to rush back down the stairs in order to let Tenten in.

"Well, that's everyone!" She announced with a grin. "Now let's have some fun, ne?"

Gaara suppressed the urge to shudder. 'I have the feeling I'm going to regret this.' She sighed slightly as her sister dragged her into the living room where the group arranged themselves comfortably around a low table set with various snacks and candy.

* * *

"So, I hear long hair is in style again." Ino announced happily after several minutes of chatter, unconsciously preening her long blonde locks. "Have you ever considered growing your hair out, Gaara-chan?"

The redhead blinked, having been content to listen silently to the other four teens babble on about colors and styles of clothing that she'd never even heard of. Still, the question was simple enough. "No."

Temari sighed and ran a hand ruefully over her own unmanageable tresses. "What my sister means to say, is that her hair is too wild to let it grow out. It'd be much too hot for home and it's a pain to take care of as well. Kankuro's is the same way. He used to keep a pet bird in there for a while when he was a kid...until..." She trailed off. 'Until father found out and broke the creature's tiny neck. Kuro hasn't let his hair grow out since.' The older sand sibling forced a smile and changed the subject. "Besides I think Gaara's hair is cute. If she'd just let me do something with it every now and then..."

Gaara frowned, she didn't like where this conversation was going. Recently her sister had become enamored with the idea of putting various accessories in her hair. Gaara didn't see the point of it. Her hair wasn't long enough to be in her eyes and she didn't think the clips and bows Temari kept trying to force on her were very attractive. 'Sometimes I think it was easier when Temari still thought I was a guy.'

Gaara blinked as she noticed that all four girls were looking at her intently. She had allowed her mind to wander and someone had apparently asked her a question while she wasn't paying attention. "Um...I guess so." She offered, hoping the vague response would be appropriate for whatever had been asked of her.

From the victorious look on her sister's face and the gleam in Ino's eyes, Gaara knew she'd made a mistake the moment the words left her mouth.

"Come on then!" Ino grinned and held out a hand to pull the shorter girl to her feet.

Gaara took the hand reluctantly and was quickly towed along to a room that looked more like a six year old girl should inhabit it, rather than a nearly seventeen year old. Lavender ruffles adorned the bed and window dressings and a mountain of stuffed animals towered in one corner beside a vanity table overflowing with cosmetics. It was to this table the pale eyed blonde lead her increasingly nervous guest. The other girls followed the pair down the hall and filed into the room.

"That's the spirit, Gaara-chan! You can't have a sleepover without doing makeovers, after all." Ino beamed.

"Make...overs?" Gaara repeated quietly, not really sure what she had agreed to.

"Yep. You just sit still and don't worry, ne?" Temari had joined the other blonde and they seemed to tower over the seated redhead as the other two teens sat back and watched from the bed.

"We're going to make you beautiful, Little Sis."

Gaara sweat dropped at the sight of the handfuls of hairbows her sister was clutching. 'I should have gone with no.' She decided as the eager pair of women descended on her with every beauty product in Ino's arsenal.

* * *

Three hours later, a transformed group of young ladies sat in Ino's living room. Temari's coarse hair had been painstakingly tamed into a sleek bun that made her look much more refined and mature than usual. Hinata's long blue tresses had been curled and swept up into a delicate looking arrangement on top of her head with a few artfully placed curls left loose to framed her pale lavender eyes. Tenten had been talked out of her usual style as well and now her curly brown hair hung to her shoulders, the frizziness tamed out of it with some elixir of Ino's and the curls carefully smoothed into ringlets and pushed back from her face with a ribbon headband.

Gaara's own hair had not been spared restyling, despite the fact that it was only about three inches long and curled in all directions. Twin hairclips shaped like little black bows sat just behind her temples, each holding a tiny curl back from it's usual position on the redhead's forehead. She seriously considered yanking them out while her sister wasn't looking but every time she tried, Temari seemed to somehow know to turn her way and the chance would be lost.

After a few minutes the redhead gave up, reminding herself that it was better to pick the battles she fought with her bossy older sister. Not that Gaara thought she couldn't win, but she did have to live with the other girl and Temari could make that prospect decidedly unpleasant if the mood struck her.

All five teens also wore varying amounts of makeup, with Gaara wearing by far the least since she had flatly refused to allow them to put anything other than blush and some sort of cherry flavored lip gloss on her after she had seen the way they made up each other.

Gaara had been relieved when Ino finally announced that the makeovers were done for the evening...

Until the blonde Leaf kunoichi said a sentence that made the redhead decidedly nervous. "Let's play truth or dare."

Gaara had played the game with her siblings during one of their ill fated attempts to drag their 'little brother' away from his work and the experience had not been pleasant. Temari's dares tended to be of the sort that would be both embarrassing and likely to cause an international incident now that they were no longer at home in Sunagakure.

Ino started off, turning first to Temari. "Truth or dare."

"Dare." The older blonde grinned. She always chose dare.

"Okay...um..." Ino thought for a moment, obviously wishing the foreign ninja had chosen truth. "I dare you...to kiss Shikamaru on the lips." She finally finished with an evil grin, knowing the pair had been dancing around each other for years.

Temari paled, though she and the lazy strategist had tentatively acknowledged their feelings for each other they had never actually done more kissing than a quick peck on the cheek. "Right now?" She asked, hoping to get out of it. "He's not even here."

"Right now. Let's go." Ino stood.

Temari did so as well, seeming to steel herself. "Okay. Follow me." She darted out through the window and took to the rooftops as she headed for the Nara's estate outside the village.

The four well trained ninjas had no trouble keeping up with the blonde as she moved smoothly from the village roofs into the trees beyond. The group came to a silent halt just a dozen yards from the Nara home, stopping so they could keep the concealment of the bushes and trees.

"We'll wait for you here. Make sure you bring him out so we can see you before you do it or it doesn't count." Ino told the older teen in a whisper.

"Yeah yeah, I know." Temari brushed herself off and moved from the trees to the house with a confidence that only Gaara could tell was feigned.

The redhead could see her sister was a nervous wreck. 'Has she really never kissed him?' She thought curiously. It was hard to believe she had more experience with romance than her outgoing sister.

* * *

Shikamaru was sitting across the shoji table from his father. Neither had moved a piece in several minutes but that didn't seem to bother either of the Nara men.

"Maru-kun, you have a visitor on the porch." The sing-song voice of his mother interrupted the spiky haired teen's thoughts and he took a few moments to process the words again before deciding to see who would be coming to see him so late in the evening.

'It could be a mission, but Kaa-san's tone didn't sound right for that...in fact she only uses that tone when she talks about...a girl.' He sighed. There were only so many women who'd seek him out and he was pretty sure he could guess which one this was. "Troublesome." He muttered as he stepped out onto the wooden porch that ran around the whole house.

"Wha..." The word froze in his throat as he took in the vision that was Temari in the moonlight. Her hair was done in a style that made her look less like an overgrown six year old and the makeup she was wearing highlighted her features without being too much. Even in her everyday clothes she was stunning to his smitten heart.

"You'll catch flies, Crybaby." Temari chuckled, hoping he couldn't tell that his reaction had caused a redness in her cheeks that wasn't all rouge.

Shikamaru snapped his mouth closed and took another few moments to collect himself.

Temari took the opportunity to pounce. "Walk with me a bit." She ordered.

The Nara heir sighed but walked over to the blonde and didn't protest when she nervously took his arm.

Temari had had a few minutes to think of how to fulfill the terms of the dare without alerting her prey to the game. She didn't want their first kiss spoiled by a silly dare.

Firming her resolve with a quick breath, she spoke softly, hoping the words wouldn't carry to the four kunoichi hiding in the bushes that were just coming into view as they rounded the corner of the house.

"I got your note."

Shikamaru tensed for a moment, the only sign that he might have been nervous as he shrugged.

"Does...does it mean what I think it does?" She asked, cursing her nerves for making the question sound a lot less cocky than she usually allowed.

"It means you are more trouble than you're worth." The lazy genius groused, more out of habit than feeling.

His attitude seemed to help Temari regain her confidence and she grinned at him. "Yeah, well you need someone to kick you into motion once in a while or you'd never do anything."

His silence was answer enough as he didn't bother to argue something he knew was pretty much true.

"I wanted to...um..." Temari shook her head, turning to face the outwardly apathetic teen with a huff. "Oh forget it."

Shikamaru's powerful brain deserted him as he watched Temari lean towards him. Then her lips were touching his and his eyes drifted closed after a few startled moments and he couldn't seem to help kissing her back.

Just as quickly as it had begun, the kiss ended and when Shikamaru opened his eyes he was alone on his porch. For an instant he wondered if the whole thing had been in his imagination but the taste of cherry lip gloss on his overly warm lips told him he wasn't going crazy.

"Very troublesome." He mumbled as he turned to go back inside. Still, he couldn't stop the crooked smile that crept onto his face as he relived the kiss in his mind. 'But...maybe worth it.' He added to himself.

* * *

The group of girls arrived back at Ino's house within minutes. Temari was still blushing and Ino was grinning like the cat that got the canary while Hinata, Gaara and Tenten wondered nervously who the embarrassed Sand ninja would choose to play next.

Temari shook off the thoughts of Shikamaru with some effort as the group settled back into the living room. She considered getting revenge by choosing Ino to take the next round but she couldn't resist teasing her little sister.

Gaara's eyes flickered with just a hint of fear as her sister focused her attention squarely on her.

"Truth or dare, Baby Sister?"

Gaara hesitated only a few seconds. "Truth."

Temari deflated a bit as Ino perked up in interest. "Hmm..." She already knew most of her sister's secrets and it wouldn't do for them to be shared with everyone else. "What do you have nightmares about?" She asked, genuinely curious since Gaara still refused to share her bad dreams.

Gaara blanched and the older blonde could tell she had made a mistake. The redhead's face became a pale mask as she tried to reign in her emotions at the memories that flooded her mind with her sister's simple question. "Don't...don't ask that." She said flatly.

Temari started to offer another question but Ino interrupted.

"The rules are that you have to answer whatever the person asks, or you have to answer a question from each one of us as punishment." Her inner Ino cheered. She had just made up that rule but no one could really call her on it since it was her party.

Gaara thought for a moment and then nodded. "Just...not that."

Ino grinned evilly. "Okay, Temari ask your question."

Temari frowned thoughtfully. "Okay..." She decided to go easy on the younger girl, as an apology of sorts for causing distress. "Who would you like to go on a dream date with and what would it be like?"

Relieved, Gaara couldn't help the tiny hint of a smile that toyed with the corner of her mouth at the easy question. "Naruto." She supplied easily. "Any date is nice with him." She blushed, unable to think up any really romantic ideas for a dream date. She'd never really considered the idea before.

"Really? Anybody in the world and you want to date Naruto?!" Tenten burst out, startling the others since she had been fairly quiet up to that point. "Why? What do you see in him?"

"That's two questions." Temari pointed out with slight amusement, ignoring the fact that her own question had been two questions as well, just worked into one sentence.

"Oh, um...sorry. No that isn't my question...um..." The brown haired girl scratched the back of her head sheepishly. "Um...Have you ever kissed a guy and if so, who was it?" She smiled, pleased with having worked the two topics into one question.

Gaara blushed but nodded. "Naruto...we've kissed." She admitted.

Hinata was next as Ino was too busy absorbing every scrap of information she could from Gaara's short answers.

"Ano...How did..." She blushed hotly but the question had been plaguing her for some time. "How did Naruto-kun's pants end up on your bed?"

Gaara flushed the same shade as her hair at what the shy girl was implying but she recovered quickly. She knew the only time Naruto had left his pants in her possession had been entirely innocent. "After the second stage of the chunin exams...when he got hurt." She shoved away the thought that he could have died. Naruto didn't know how to die. "I fixed them and washed them for him..." That wasn't entirely accurate. "Actually Kankuro fixed them." She corrected herself calmly. "I can't sew."

Ino frowned. 'Drat, that sounded like it might have been something juicy. Too bad.'

Hinata blushed but looked relieved as well. She didn't really think Gaara was the sort to allow half naked men in her bed. Even if Naruto and the exiled Kazekage were sleeping together, the blue haired girl was fairly sure all their clothes would stay on. The fact that Naruto was still alive despite his girlfriend having two violently overprotective older siblings was testament to that.

Ino took a few moments to decide on her question. This was her best chance to get some really good information out of the exiled Kazekage so she had to make it count. At last it came to her. "So, Gaara-chan, how serious is this thing between you and Naruto?" She asked incredulously, still unable to picture the hyperactive idiot she knew from school with the stoic young woman sitting before her.

The redhead's face flamed again as her mind replayed dozens of nights held in his arms and the few dates they had managed to go on, culminating in her whispered proposal and his sleepy affirmative answer. "I don't understand what you're asking." She said slowly, buying herself time to form an appropriate response.

Ino frowned. "I mean...I know you've been on a few dates and you say you've kissed him...and I know you called yourself his girlfriend when he was in the hospital. I guess I'm just trying to ask where you think the relationship is going."

Gaara blinked at how much the girl actually had managed to glean from hearsay and whatever other sources she might have used. She considered the revised question carefully for a moment before she answered confidently. "I'm going to marry him."

Temari grinned, pleased that the doubt that had plagued her little sister seemed to have been resolved.

Ino's pale eyes widened. She hadn't been expecting that. "What? Like now?"

Gaara shrugged, not minding the extra question since the girl's tone made her feel the need to defend her choice. "Whenever he asks me." She answered calmly, oddly eager butterflies settling into her stomach at the thought.

Ino sighed in relief, pleased to know she hadn't missed anything so grand as a proposal in her information gathering. "Hmph, good luck with that." She offered sourly. "Guys our age aren't ready for that sort of commitment." She snorted, pushing the image of a certain potato chip eating idiot out of her head with a burst of denial.

Gaara's eyes flickered with doubt for a moment.

"Yeah, well you might be surprised by some of them." Temari said cryptically, winking at the redhead.

Gaara blinked back, wondering if her sister was just trying to encourage her or if she actually knew something she wasn't sharing.

Ino took in that knowing statement with interest but had to file it away for later perusal since the game wasn't over. "Gaara-chan, it's your turn."

The redhead looked over the other girls for a moment deciding who to question. The game seemed to revolve around asking embarrassing questions or making the person do things they would normally avoid and she didn't really know Tenten or Ino well enough to do either to them. That left only her sister and Hinata, and Temari had already had a turn.

Aqua eyes turned to the nervous looking blue haired girl. "Truth or Dare?"

Hinata paled a bit and smiled nervously. "Ano...um...Truth." The shy girl said softly.

Gaara thought for a few moments. "What happened on your last date?" She asked calmly. Hinata had told her about most of the dates she had shared with the insect keeper but she had been oddly silent about the last one and Gaara was honestly curious.

Hinata did her best to match Gaara's hair and she looked down at her hands which had begun to fidget nervously in front of her. "Oh...um...Shino-k-kun and I...He t-told me..." The girl shook her head to stop her stammering. "Shino t-told me he's in l-love with me." She admitted finally with a small sad smile.

"Good catch, Hinata-chan!" Temari grinned and slapped the younger girl on the back amiably.

Ino wasn't so sure. 'Shino is a bit...intense and let's face it, bugs living inside his body...that's downright disturbing even by ninja standards.' She shook her head. "What did you say?" She asked curiously.

Hinata's crimson cheeks made her answer clear before she managed to squeak the words out. "I t-told him...th-that I think...I l-love him t-too." Again, there was a trace of sadness in her tone that Gaara didn't understand.

Gaara was happy for her friend. Shino was a nice guy and even the socially inexperienced redhead could tell he would move heaven and earth for the blue haired girl's happiness.

"Really?" Ino asked, unable to hold in her disbelief any longer. She noticed that Hinata looked somewhat offended by her tone so she hurried to clarify her meaning. "He's an okay guy and all, don't get me wrong. It's just that, of all the people you could end up dating, Hinata-chan, I never would've pictured Shino-kun as your type." She shook her head thoughtfully. "I mean, with your crush on Naruto, I'd have thought you'd be more likely to end up with someone like Kiba-kun or even Lee-san. I mean, Shino's so...different from Naruto."

Hinata relaxed as the blonde leaf ninja's meaning became clear. She smiled slightly though it didn't reach her eyes. "Maybe...it was time for me to stop hovering in anyone's shadow." She said slowly, thinking of Shino's kind words the day she had finally told Naruto her feelings and been rejected by him.

Ino nodded thoughtfully. True, Hinata had always gotten rather overshadowed by Naruto and the same thing would've happened with anyone like him. Maybe she and Shino were a good match after all. "So...is it serious? Have you kissed yet? Are you going to marry him?" The questions poured forth in a rush of curiosity.

Hinata shook her head and stammered, unable to handle the flow of questions.

"Ino-san." Gaara's steady voice cut the blonde off mid word. "It isn't your turn." The redhead said calmly.

Hinata shot the exjinchuriki a grateful look as the reminder spared her from having to share more about her relationship with Shino than she was prepared to discuss. The redhead noticed that her friend's lavender eyes were glistening with unshed tears but it could have been merely relief.

Ino looked mildly put out but she covered it with a wry smile and a small bow to Hinata. "Of course, sorry Hinata-chan. Go ahead."

Hinata nodded, already appearing less distressed, and quickly chose Tenten to direct her question towards. "Truth or Dare?"

* * *

Gaara stretched out on the futon that had been provided for her on the floor in Ino's room. She was slightly nervous about sleeping with so many people around but she wasn't having nightmares every night anymore so she felt the risk was minimal.

As she closed her eyes, she thought of Naruto and began imagining the future they might share. She saw herself in her Kazekage robes, the loose garment tented by her belly swollen with Naruto's child. Naruto himself tumbling across the floor in a tangle of limbs with two older children, a girl with his distinctive yellow hair and her aqua eyes and a smaller boy with her crimson locks and Naruto's piercing blue gaze. All of them were laughing as she watched them play, or train as Naruto would likely call it.

Gaara wasn't certain when she fell asleep but she was smiling softly, contentedly.

* * *

The next morning the five young women said their goodbyes and went separate ways in good spirits. Gaara had slept soundly through the night, much to her relief and Temari's. The redhead and Hinata headed for their favorite training ground while Tenten and Ino reported for their assigned duties and Temari headed home to check in with Kankuro.

Hinata seemed lost in thought as the pair of teens walked and Gaara wasn't one to break a comfortable silence. Finally, the blue haired girl spoke up. "Ano...Gaara..."

The redhead turned her eyes to look at the shy girl expectantly.

"I...I was wondering...I know you and N-Naruto are pretty serious about each other..." The girl blushed. "Are...are you ever afraid...that it won't work out? I m-mean...I know p-people have to make s-sacrifices for a relationship s-sometimes...b-but what if that s-sacrifice is really huge..." The girl hesitated, obviously choosing her words carefully. "I mean...um...what if b-being with Naruto meant you had to give up b-being Kazekage?"

Gaara thought the question over for a few moments, it wasn't the first time she'd considered it. "I think, love is something worth fighting for. No matter what the personal cost might be."

Hinata sighed heavily, seeming to struggle with herself before she spoke again. "What if it meant giving up your family?" The violet eyed young woman asked sadly.

Gaara's eyes narrowed. That didn't sound like a hypothetical question anymore. Hinata's strange sadness as she talked about Shino's confession of love during the game came suddenly back into the redhead's mind. "Hinata, what's going on?" She asked sharply, not liking to see her friend so down.

Pale purple eyes blinked as if she hadn't expected the question and tears welled up as she finally admitted the root of the problem. "Shino asked my father for permission to marry me and he said no. Father has forbidden me from seeing Shino anymore." The girl sobbed.

Aqua eyes widened in shock. How could anyone be so cruel to their own child? "Why?" She asked after a moment, wondering if there was some reason for such a cruel ruling.

"I..." Hinata shook her head. "I can't tell you. I swore I wouldn't tell anyone. I can only say that there's a reason the Hyuuga's don't ever intermarry with the Aburame's."

Gaara nodded, she understood secrecy. She paused for a moment as Hinata struggled to get control of her tears. "Is that reason good enough for you?" She asked softly when the blue haired teen seemed to have gotten a handle on her emotions.

Pale eyes widened as if that consideration had never crossed her mind. "What?" She gasped.

"This reason that your father has for keeping you apart...is it valid?" The redhead elaborated carefully. "To answer your earlier question, in the very real likelihood that Suna's council might try to use my relationship with Naruto to keep me from taking my title back, I would fight them. I would try to convince them they were wrong." She said slowly. "However, I would give up my place in Sunagakure before I gave up Naruto." It was a strange relief to say the words aloud and the redhead was amazed that she had finally figured out a satisfying answer to that question. She loved her people and she would defend them to her dying breath but she didn't have to be Kazekage to do that. Naruto was more important to her than the title and respect she had worked so hard to earn.

Hinata blinked back her tears. "Fight? Fight my father?" She paled at the thought. She had spent her whole life seeking the respect of her father, acknowledgement from him that she was good enough, strong enough. 'And he's never once given me hope that that will ever happen.' She admitted to herself. She had done everything he had ever asked of her, because she wanted him to be proud of her.

Gaara waited patiently for her friend to think the idea over.

"Gaara...is it okay if I skip today's training." The Hyuuga heiress finally asked, wiping her eyes to clear away the last of her tears. "I have someone I need to go talk to."

Gaara nodded, a small smile pulling at the corner of her lips.

Hinata answered that ghost of a smile with a blinding grin that would've made Naruto proud. "Arigatou! I'll see you tomorrow."

The long haired girl darted off and Gaara was left alone. She considered going home but decided instead to continue on to the training grounds on her own.

'Good luck, Hinata.' She thought fondly as she approached the sandy area she had created over many weeks of practice.

The redhead began to move the sand around her with small gestures, not wanting to exhaust her chakra supply and pass out. She was unaware of the cold eyes watching her from the trees.

To Be Continued...

Author's Note: Finally! This chapter got stuck for a while but watching some Naruto got me moving again. I hope everyone enjoyed it. Next chapter: Naruto finally heads home but who's stalking Gaara and what are their intentions? Will Naruto make it back before they act? Also, I'm going to be working on a Shino/Hinata sidestory to this one because they've got a lot going on that I haven't covered in this story and I thought you all might want to know.


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